


All the Pretty Girls

by ReshopHeda_13



Category: Elyza Lex (Fanverse), Fear the Walking Dead (TV), Lexark - Fandom, The 100 (TV), queer the walking dead
Genre: Alicia Blushes, BAMF Alicia Clark, BAMF Elyza Lex, Elyza Lex Swears, Endgame, F/F, FUCK YOU JASON, Fluffy gays, How Do I Tag, I Don't Even Know, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, lexark, people gonna die
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-10
Updated: 2017-01-21
Packaged: 2018-09-16 15:35:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 26,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9278249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReshopHeda_13/pseuds/ReshopHeda_13
Summary: Y'all know the drill. Alicia is a stubborn little shit who gets separated from her family and finds Elyza who is a cocky little shit and makes Alicia blush all the time. They won't remember their past lives as Lexa or Clarke, but they're going to be super fluffy and cute and badass. This is going to be a really slow burn, I'm planning on making it several chapters long as I continue avoiding all of my responsibilities. I suck at summaries but hopefully you guys don't think I suck at writing this story.





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's a reference to the episode in season 2 where Alicia is a BAMF and takes out a bunch of walkers on the beach when they find the plane crash site. I know on the show the little fuck Alicia talked to on the radio and his buddies showed up after that, but that didn't happen in this story because I said so and that whole thing frustrated the hell out of me. Also, we are going to pretend she got her bat from that same airplane wreckage because I can't come up with a better explanation. Anyways, enjoy!

The sound of her brother and mother’s shouts in the hallway is what woke Alicia. She sat up with a start, immediately concerned that something had happened before she realized it was just another fight between the two and she collapsed back onto her pillow with a heavy sigh.

“You can’t keep me locked up on this boat forever mom! I’m not a child anymore.” Nick yelled.

“You have always been and will always be my child Nick. And I will keep you here as long as I see fit.” Her mother shouted back.

Alicia surmised they were fighting once more about Nick taking part in the supply run on shore that was scheduled to happen later today. It had been an ongoing battle between the two ever since the group had decided they needed to stop and pick up some essentials in town a few days ago. Though that’s not to say her brother and mother didn’t argue about anything and everything before this either. Alicia had tried to talk her mother into letting her go as well, but when she realized there was no way her mother was going to give in she decided to give up rather than waste her energy fighting a battle she had no hope in hell of winning. 

Alicia rose slowly and began to get changed out of her PJs and into her usual plaid shirt and a pair of jeans as the shouts continued from outside her door.

“Mom quit being so selfish. It’s not safe for just Travis and Daniel to go out there alone. Let me help them!”

“You and I both know you don’t want to get off this ship to help anyone other than yourself. I will not let you go with Travis and Daniel just so you can run off and find drugs.” Her mother said back with a hint of finality in her tone.

Suddenly another voice joined the mix. “Madison, he may have a point. Daniel and I could use an extra hand, it would move things along much faster and we could bring more supplies back with his help. Plus Daniel and I will be able to keep an eye on him if he comes with us as opposed to him sneaking off on his own.” Travis said, his voice much calmer than the other two. 

Silence followed as Madison slowly chewed over her fiancé’s words. “Fine.” She said after about a minute of deliberation. “But you are not to leave Travis and Daniel’s sight.” She said sternly.

At this new development Alicia began to quicken her pace, hastily throwing her black converse on her feet before bursting out of her room and into the hallway.

“If Nick is going, so am I.” She said, looking at her mother who had an expression of slight surprise on her face. She clearly didn’t think her daughter was awake to hear the conversation (how could she not though? Their bickering was loud enough to wake the dead). 

Alicia was so sick of being trapped on Strand’s stupid boat. She hated the boring white walls and brown floors that she paced day in and day out. She was going stir crazy and wanted more than anything to be able to truly stretch her legs and walk freely through town (well as freely as one can walk in a zombie apocalypse). 

The brief look of shock that had appeared on Madison’s face when Alicia first spoke was replaced by one of anger. “Alicia we already discussed this. You and I will stay and watch the boat with Chris, Strand and Ophelia. We both agreed that you would not be going into town.” Madison said, her hands resting on her hips.

“That was before you said Nick could go! Mom I am more than capable of defending myself out there you know I am. I’ll bring my bat and I won’t wander off. Please mom I just need to get the hell off this ship for a few hours.” Alicia responded, her green eyes flashing in annoyance at her mother’s clear double standards. 

“Enough Alicia. You are not going and that’s final. We both know that a few hours of ‘freedom’ could very well lead to your death and that’s not something I will allow.” She began walking towards Alicia and reached her hands out in an attempt to grasp her shoulders. Alicia felt anger burn deep in her stomach as she slapped her mother’s hands away before they could reach their destination. 

“This is bullshit.” She said with as much venom in her tone as she could muster before spinning on her heel and marching upstairs. 

Once she reached the main level of the extravagant ship she continued out onto the deck before sitting on one of the couches there and letting the cool sea air whip her hair around her face and clear her mind. Why did her mother have such little faith in her? She had already proven herself more than capable of taking care of herself on their last trip to the ground when the walkers from that plane crash had attacked her, Nick, Daniel and Chris. 

Her mother was being overprotective, but she didn’t understand that there was no point in trying to protect her daughter in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. The dead ruled the world now, and that meant there was no more hope, no more safety, no more happiness. There was just one solitary thing driving every living person now – survival. Home and the comfort it brought no longer existed for anyone, Alicia knew that, and her mother would need to accept it sooner rather than later. 

It had been hard for Alicia when that realization first hit her. She had spent the night curled up and shivering on the rooftop deck as her tears streamed down her face and she let her old life, her old self, her old hopes and dreams leave her. She no longer had any use for them. Who she was, what she wanted, and how she felt before everything went to hell no longer mattered. She would never go to Berkley, would never marry Matt and start a family, would never be happy. She had resigned herself to this hollow life that night, boiled everything down to a single need for survival. Some days she found herself wondering why they even bothered trying to survive when the world was so dark and empty now. She often wondered what exactly they were surviving for, but she resigned herself to the knowledge that survival was simply an instinct and no matter how foolish and pointless it felt to try and keep moving forward, something deep insider her would always keep her fighting on the most basic level. 

But if she was going to continue surviving, she sure as hell wasn’t going to do it on this god forsaken boat for a second longer than was necessary. If Nick was going on the supply run then so was she, with or without her mother’s approval (and it would most definitely be happening without her approval). 

She was brought out of her rather dark and delinquent thoughts by the sound of someone opening the door to the deck before closing it again and walking towards her. Alicia turned her head slightly to see Ofelia walking towards her. If it had been anyone else coming to join her Alicia probably would have gotten up and left, but she had grown to like Ofelia and rather enjoyed talking to her. Plus, she could use her help to get around her mother and join the supply run later today.

“Hey.” Alicia said with a small smile as Ofelia sat down beside her.

“Morning.” The raven haired girl said in reply. “So did your brother have any more luck convincing your mom to let him go on today’s run? The screams died down before I could hear the final verdict through the floor.”

Alicia rolled her eyes before responding. “Oh he convinced her alright, with a little help from Travis. Now if only he could use his powers of persuasion to get my mom to let me join them.” She finished with a huff as she crossed her arms over her chest and glared out across the seemingly endless sea. 

“You hate it here.” Ofelia said. It wasn’t a question, she was merely pointing out the blatantly obvious.

“Don’t you?” Alicia asked, turning to look questioningly at the girl beside her.

Ofelia shrugged lightly before responding. “It could be worse I suppose, we could be dead. Besides, I’d never been on a ship before this and I’ve found it to be quite relaxing. I enjoy listening to the waves and looking up to the stars at night. Plus I feel safer out here in the middle of the ocean than back on the land.”

Alicia was forced to choke back a very sarcastic laugh at the other girl’s comments. Relaxing? Are you kidding me? There was nothing relaxing about being trapped on a boat with your make-shift family and three strangers. It was suffocating and Alicia needed to get off this ship before the weight of confinement completely crushed her. 

“Nowhere is completely safe anymore.” Alicia said darkly. “But even if it is moderately safer here than back on land I’d still rather be back there where I can actually breathe and don’t have my mother’s eyes on me 24/7.”

She felt Ofelia’s gaze on her but she refused to meet it, continuing to stare blankly at the flow of churning water being pushed out behind the boat by its motor. 

“You’re planning on sneaking out to join the supply run today, aren’t you?” Ofelia asked, though her tone told Alicia she already knew the answer.

“Yes.” Alicia said simply, still not looking at Ofelia. 

“And how exactly are you planning on getting past your mother?” The other girl asked, and Alicia could hear the smile in her voice.

“Actually, I wanted to talk to you about that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love sneaky Alicia


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sass master Alicia

About three hours after finishing her conversation with Ofelia, Alicia stood leaning against the door frame that separated the boat's living space from the deck as she watched her mother finish saying goodbye to Nick. 

“Be safe.” Madison said, hugging her son tightly before letting go and allowing him to climb down the ladder after Travis and Daniel who were already waiting on the dock for the boy to join them. 

They had docked about ten minutes ago, after having cruised by the bay slowly to ensure there weren’t any people, living or dead, hanging around the marina. Alicia continued standing silently behind her mother as she watched her brother join the other two men. She was trying desperately to keep her excitement hidden from her mother. She would be getting off this stupid fucking boat in a matter of minutes if everything went to plan, but things certainly wouldn’t go to plan if her mother caught on to her excited energy. She would know something was up right away if she did. So Alicia stood like a statue with her arms crossed over her chest and her best ‘moody teenager’ glare in place as her mother began to walk towards her.

“Alicia, honey, I know you’re still mad at me for refusing to let you join them but you know it’s only because I lo-“ Madison’s next words were cut off by the sound of Ofelia cursing from the floor below.

“Shit!” They heard her yell. “Guys get down here! Something’s wrong with the water filter!”

Madison looked at Alicia and then Chris, who had been standing by the railing and watching the three men disappear in the distance, with a look of panic in her eyes. 

Alicia did her best to match her mother’s panicked look, even though she knew exactly what was going on. After their conversation on the deck earlier that day, the two girls had found some tools in the utility room and removed one of the parts of the water filtration system. They hadn’t done any serious damage, the part was safe and sound in a corner of the utility room, but they had done enough to cause a distraction that would allow Alicia to sneak off the ship unnoticed by her mother. 

“You two go down to Ofelia and see what’s wrong. I’ll run upstairs and grab Strand, he’ll know what to do!” Alicia said to her mother and Chris who both nodded and ran towards the stairs that would lead them down to Ophelia. Alicia smirked to herself once they left before quickly running inside to grab her bat which she had hidden earlier from under the couch. She had absolutely no intentions of getting Strand.

Without even bothering to glance behind her she hauled herself over the side of the boat and clambered down the ladder before sprinting down the dock and up to the streets in the direction she had seen her brother, Travis and Daniel head. God it felt good to run. Alicia had never been very interested in athletics in high school, but she found herself loving the feeling of the wind in her hair and the burn in her lungs and legs and she continued sprinting towards the three men she could now see walking towards a grocery store in the distance. She supposed she should feel bad for tricking her mother and the worry that her disappearance would surely bring her, but right now all she could think about was how fucking good it felt to finally be free of that horrifically stifling boat. 

Shortly after first spotting them, Alicia saw her brother turn his head at the sound of her feet slapping hard against the pavement beneath her. She could see the confusion on his face has he stopped and turned his body all the way around to face her. 

“Alicia?” She heard him ask as she approached the three and slowed to a walk.

At her brother’s words Travis spun around and his confused brown eyes immediately locked onto her determined green ones. His confusion turned into anger rather quickly, but Alicia couldn’t find it in herself to care. 

“Alicia, what the hell are you doing here?!” He yelled, storming up to her as she straightened up having been bent over slightly in an attempt to catch her breath. 

Without missing a beat or breaking his eye contact she said, “Careful Travis, you may not want to yell like that, the dead are always listening. And to answer your question I’m here to help, I figured you could use it and judging by your inability to keep your voice down it would appear I was right.” She was being a little shit and she knew it, but still she just didn’t care. The feeling of finally being back in civilization and off the boat had given her a newfound sense of confidence that she wasn’t about to stifle, no matter how harshly Travis was glaring at her. 

“Alicia, turn around and get back on that boat now!” Travis said, pointing a finger back towards the marina and doing his best to sound authoritative without raising his voice too much. 

“No.” Alicia replied simply. “I’m here now, so you can either let me help or I can go off on my own and find some supplies myself because there’s no way I’m going back to that boat. And I think you know which of those two options my mother would prefer.” She finished as a smug grin spread across her beautiful features. She had him by the balls, she knew it and so did he.

Before Travis could respond Daniel spoke up. “Enough of this, we are wasting time. The girl is right, she’s with us now and we would be foolish to refuse her help. The more people we have, the more supplies we can gather and the better protected we will all be.”

Alicia saw Travis’ eyes flare in anger (she had still refused to break eye contact with the man) before he closed them and took a deep breath. “Fine.” He said, the single word dripped with annoyance. “But you are not to leave my side and there will be consequences when we return to the ship.”

Alicia rolled her eyes before strolling past Travis towards the grocery store the men had been heading for before she arrived. She pulled her cell phone and headphones out of her back pocket and placed one of the buds securely in her left ear so she could listen to her music but would still be able to hear what was going on around her. Moments later her brother strolled up beside her with a rather large grin on his face.

“I gotta hand it to you little sister, I didn’t think you had it in you.” He said glancing down at her.

Alicia returned his slightly bemused look with a glare of her own. “That was your first mistake. I wasn’t about to let mom tell me where I could and couldn’t go. I’m not a child, not anymore.” 

He raised his hands slightly in mock surrender. “Hey no argument here. I’m glad you finally started taking matters into your own hands. The goody-two shoes honor roll student thing was getting a little boring. You may actually be my sister after all.” He finished by bumping his shoulder lightly into hers. She felt a small smile spread across her face in spite of herself.

She’d always liked Nick. Sure, she hated his addiction and what it did to both her and their family, but after their dad died and her mother checked out he had been there for her. They had found comfort in knowing the other shared their pain in a way no one else could. That tragedy had forged a bond between the two siblings that was hard to understand at times, but was stronger than anything Alicia had ever known. 

As the group approached the grocery store, Alicia’s hand unconsciously tightened around her bat as her eyes scanned her surroundings looking for trouble. It had been a quiet trip thus far, but they hadn’t been out for long and they all knew things could easily turn deadly in the blink of an eye. 

The four stopped just outside of the smashed door of the grocery store as Daniel reached down and picked up a piece of rubble from the ground. He walked the last two steps up to the entrance of the store and tossed the brick into its depths. It smashed loudly against something inside the store and they waited for a solid minute afterwards, their ears straining to hear if the noise had roused any walkers within the store. When no other sounds reached them they stepped cautiously into the store with their weapons raised slightly. 

Alicia’s sense were all heightened as they made their way slowly down the aisles of the store. She could hear the glass crunching beneath her sneakers, could smell the sweat dripping down her brother’s back beside her, felt the smooth wood of her bat as her sweaty hand gripped it ever tighter. 

After another minute or so of slowly walking through the aisles, the group began to relax as it became easier to believe that, if only for the moment, they were alone in the store. 

Travis knelt down and slipped the black backpack off his back before opening it to reveal several more rather scrunched up backpacks which he distributed evenly between the remaining three members of their party. 

“Grab whatever you can fit into these bags that you think we will need.” Travis began quietly. “Our main concern is food, but if you find some other useful items you can fit in your bag grab them. We move together as a group, one aisle at a time.” He finished looking pointedly between Alicia and Nick. 

Alicia sighed inwardly as the group began to pick any remaining cans off the shelf in the aisle they had been standing in. As much as she wanted to explore on her own, she knew it wouldn’t be safe despite the apparent lack of walkers. Silence meant nothing in a zombie apocalypse, she knew that. In fact, silence was often a precursor to very dangerous and very deadly scenarios. Not only that but Travis’ eyes hadn’t left her for longer than fifteen seconds since they began making their way through the store and they had already picked through three aisles so she knew there was no way she’d be able to sneak off anyways. She’d pushed her luck already sneaking off the boat and knew that to try again would not be the wisest idea. Besides, she was off the ship and, even under Travis’ watchful gaze, felt better than she had since the day she had first stepped foot onto that floating hell. 

Alicia had been lost in her thoughts for the past few aisles they had been through, mindlessly grabbing cans of food that didn’t make her want to vomit (much). However she couldn’t stop the excited squeal that left her lips when they turned down the next row and she saw boxes of pads and tampons lining the shelves. She could feel the guys' eyes on her, silently judging her for her excitement over ‘sanitary products’ but she didn’t care. For the past week she had been silently dreading what would happen the next time Mother Nature decided to make her monthly stop as she noticed they were dangerously low on supplies during her last ‘visit’. She quickly grabbed as many boxes as she could fit in her bag, not knowing when she may get another chance to stock up on such necessities. 

“Really Lysh? Do you think you have enough there?” Nick smirked at her as she shoved the last box into her now very full bag before zipping it up and throwing it over her shoulder.

“What? They’re going to be way more useful than the condoms I saw you grab two rows over.” She said with a straight face as she walked by her now very red-faced brother. 

It was then that they heard it. It was low, but unmistakable. The groans of the dead trickled through the smashed front windows of the store and into their ears. 

“Oh shit.” Nick whispered as he slowly and silently walked towards the windows to get a look at the street outside, the other three close on his heels.

Alicia gripped her bat tightly as her eyes scanned the scene before her. Five walkers were about 20 yards down the road and were making their way slowly but steadily towards the store. She quickly stopped her music and removed the lone earbud from her ear before returning her headphones and phone back to her pocket, not wanting to be distracted with the arrival of this new threat. 

“Four against five? I like those odds.” Nick breathed beside her, looking to the rest of the group for confirmation. Alicia had to agree with her brother, they could handle these five no problem. She was afraid, but determined as well and perhaps even a little bit excited. After being cooped up for weeks she was ready to stretch her muscles and kill some walkers. 

Before she could voice her agreement however, new moans joined that of the five heading towards them as another ten walkers came from a side street fifteen yards to their left, and seven more from an alley just five yards down the road on the right.

“Fuck.” She whispered. They were moving fast, the seven that had just appeared were already almost right on top of the store.

“Move!” Travis yelled, not even bothering to keep his voice down. There wasn’t much point now; they were surrounded. 

Without pausing to think Alicia spun on her heel and sprinted down the aisle they had just finished clearing towards the back of the store, praying that there was a backdoor somewhere that they could use to escape. Breaking glass and an increase in the volume of the groans of the dead told her the first wave of walkers had already made it to the store’s entrance. 

Her heart pounded ferociously in her chest as her eyes ran along the back of the store in search of an exit.

“There!” Daniel shouted, pointing to a red door off to the right between two shelves holding a few moldy loaves of bread.

Alicia was second farthest from the door, followed only by her brother who she could hear breathing heavily behind her as they sprinted towards the door Daniel was now opening and running through. Alicia could see sunlight streaming through the door, blocked briefly by Travis as he too sprinted through the opening. When she just a few steps from freedom however, she heard a loud smack and a grunt behind her. She turned to see Nick splayed out on the ground and rubbing his head having tripped on some of the rubble littering the floor. Her breath caught in her throat as she looked behind him to see the first of the walkers making their way out of one of the rows towards them. They weren’t more than five feet away now. 

Without pausing to think Alicia sprinted back to her brother and grabbed him by the arm, hauling him up and shoving him ahead of her towards the door before turning quickly to face the closest walker which was now only a foot away from her. Gripping her bat tightly in her hands and setting her feet she wound back and swung forwards with as much strength as she could muster and was rewarded with a satisfying crunch as her bat met the skull of the walker, killing it instantly. Before she could spend too much time admiring her handy work though, the next walker was making his way towards her quickly. His hands raised towards her as he groaned loudly and shuffled menacingly towards her. 

“Alicia!” She heard Nick cry behind her. She didn’t dare turn around, the monster was too close now for her to run and she couldn’t risk taking her eyes off of him.

“Go Nick! Now! I’ll be right behind you!” There were five more walkers behind the one that now held Alicia’s attention. There was no way the two of them could take them all on so she urged her brother to continue through the door. Once she took care of the walker now just two feet in front of her she would be able to follow. There was no sense in both of them staying to fight.

The door creaking behind her told Alicia her brother has listened (for once) and was safe outside. Not taking a moment longer than necessary to appreciate this fact, Alicia quickly got in her stance again and swung her bat once more. She hit the walker in the head much like she had with the last one, but this ‘man’ was larger than the last and he remained upright after her initial swing. After two more powerful blows to the head he finally fell and Alicia spun back towards the door without a moment’s hesitation. She knew the rest were hot on her heels, so before exiting through the door she pulled down one of the shelves that flanked the exit with a grunt. It wasn’t large or particularly heavy, but it would at least slow down the hoard and deter the remaining walkers from following her out into the street. 

Turning away from the store she had just left, Alicia was momentarily blinded by the sun streaming over the tall buildings lining the alley she now found herself standing in. Blinking rapidly to clear her vision she began to try and take in her new surroundings. The alley she was in now seemed to only go in two directions, either directly ahead of her where it opened into another street, or to her right where she suddenly heard shouts and multiple sets of feet slamming against the pavement that she knew belonged to her brother, Travis and Daniel. She was momentarily annoyed at the fact that they hadn’t waited for her until her eyes fully adjusted and she could see clearly just why that was.

A group of about 10-12 walkers were shuffling after the three men as they continued sprinting down the alley away from the new threat. Alicia now had a choice on her hands. She could go after them and try to help them fight this new group of walkers, or she could turn and run straight ahead through the alley’s second exit and hope she would be able to reconnect with the other three later or find her way back to Strand’s boat. Neither option was ideal, but as hard as it would be she knew which one she needed to take. There was no way she would be able to reach the group through the pack of walkers now hunting them, and while she could try and follow there was no guarantee more walkers wouldn’t join them and she knew they would never be able to fight off the group just the four of them.

So, with one final glance down the alley to her right, she breathed deep and began jogging straight ahead and away from the three men whose shouts began to fade in the distance.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where's my sexy blonde Australian at?

As Alicia made her way as silently as she could down the alley and towards the sunlit street now just 30 yards ahead of her she could feel fear slowly growing in her chest, but she did her best to push the feeling down. She focused instead on keeping her breathing and heart rate as steady as possible while straining her ears for any noises that were out of the ordinary. She slowed to a stop when she reached the exit of the alley, pausing briefly to catch her breath and regroup.

Slowly Alicia poked her head around the edge of the alley to look to left and right down the street ahead of her. There were multiple abandoned cars left in various states of desertion, some still parked as though their owner would return in a matter of minutes, others with their doors flung open wide, and some were even smashed to pieces. Alicia let out a small sigh of relief when, after scanning the area for about thirty seconds, she still didn’t see or hear anything outside of those abandoned cars and a loose street sign creaking in the wind. However, she also couldn’t see the beach from here so she had no idea what direction she would need to head in order to return the boat. Both ends of the street she was looking down ended in a ‘T’, connecting with other streets that would lead her god knows where. She pulled her head back into the alley she stood in and leaned against the wall behind her, breathing deep and trying to plan her next move.

She decided that, given she had no idea how to get back to the marina from here, her best bet would be to turn right down the street in the direction her family had been heading in hopes that she would be able to find the exit to the alley they had been running down. There was no guarantee she would ever be able to find them, but she had to try and frankly she didn’t really have any other options besides wandering aimlessly through the streets. At least with this plan she had some idea about what direction she needed to go.

She steeled herself for a moment longer, pushing her fear further down within her chest before stepping into the direct heat of the sun and walking down the street to her right. She was careful to stick close to the buildings on her right, not wanting to leave anymore of herself exposed than was necessary. She kept her ears open and eyes peeled while her right hand subconsciously gripped and re-gripped the bat it held. Sweat was dripping from every inch of her skin, both from the heat of the unobstructed sun and the stress of being on her own in what she was sure was major walker territory. Who was she kidding, everywhere was walker territory.

As she approached the end of the street, her heart rate quickened rapidly as she heard faint shouting in the distance to her right.

Relief flooded her as she picked up her pace and turned right once more down another street towards the sound, assuming it was the rest of her group making the noise. Her relief was short lived however, as she soon realized the shouting was that of a girl’s voice. Fear gripped her chest as she flattened herself against the building behind her and once again began to think out her next move.

While she wasn’t close enough to hear what the voice was yelling, it was clearly a human voice and not the guttural groans of the dead. Though that didn’t mean much, Alicia had learned quickly that in this new world the living could be just as dangerous as the dead. Still, Alicia couldn’t stifle the curiosity she felt growing in her chest. It had been so long since she had spoken, or even seen anyone who wasn’t with her on the boat and she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t slightly starved for some new human contact. Plus, the longer Alicia stood there and listened the more she realized that the girl’s voice was the only one she could hear. She was alone, much like Alicia now found herself.

_Fuck it_. She thought lamely. The girl’s voice was in the direction she was planning on heading anyways, and maybe this girl needed help. Killing those two walkers earlier in the store had heightened Alicia’s confidence in her ability to defend herself and if she could help this girl she might as well try.

Pushing herself off the brick wall with a newfound sense of determination, Alicia began jogging in what she believed was the direction of the girl she was hoping to help.

As Alicia grew closer to the source of the voice, she was able to make out what the stranger was saying and she quickly realized the girl had a very thick Australian accent and absolutely no filter.

“… mother fuckers! Come and get some you little bitch.” Alicia felt herself grinning at the girl’s words before the sounds of the dead began to mix in with the Aussie’s profane shouts. Putting two and two together Alicia realized this strange girl must be fighting walkers and she quickened her pace to reach her.

This was a horrible idea, Alicia was well aware. She didn’t even know this girl and she was most definitely going to be walking into a very deadly situation if she continued on her path towards her. But as the girl’s vulgar shouts continued to fill the air around her, Alicia couldn’t find it in herself to make what she knew to be the smarter choice and turn away. She didn’t know where her family was, but she knew where this girl was and she couldn’t just leave her to be swarmed by walkers. She couldn’t do anything about her missing family, but she could certainly try to help this stranger.

“Come on mate don’t be shy! I just want to say hi.” The girl’s voice was loud now, Alicia could tell that the girl was just around the corner down a street a little ways ahead of her. Turning left down the side street Alicia was stopped dead in her tracks while a shocked gasp escaped her cracked lips at the sight before her.

Halfway down the street stood a lone girl with her back to Alicia, her blond hair flowing lightly in the breeze that rippled through the street. She was dressed all in black, a leather jacket draped around her torso as tight black jeans hugged every curve before disappearing into black lace up boots. Around her laid at least six dead walkers in a pool of blood and entrails, walkers which Alicia assumed the girl had killed herself. The blonde didn’t appear to have heard Alicia approach or the gasp she had let out as she was much too focused on the five still ‘living’ walkers that were quickly making their way towards her.

Alicia watched in silent awe as the girl began to calmly and easily take out the remaining walkers with the katana that Alicia hadn’t noticed her holding earlier. She moved with confidence, swiftly swinging her blade, fists and feet through the air without hesitation. Everything about the way she moved was beautiful, powerful, _deadly_. Alicia though back to mere minutes ago when she had first heard the girl’s shouts and had thought she might need help. That thought was laughable now, this girl could clearly handle herself.

The blonde had already taken out two of the approaching walkers before Alicia became aware of more groans filling the street. She looked to her right and watched in horror as a lone walker stumbled out of one of the stores lining the street before it began making its way towards the blonde.

Alicia knew there was no way the Aussie was aware of this new threat. She was far too focused on the other three walkers in front of her, punching one in the face while slicing another’s arm off swiftly. The new walker was now just five yards away from the girl.

Without pausing to think it through, Alicia was sprinting towards the chaos before her. She reached the newest walker just as it began reaching for the blonde who was now focused on the last attacker in front of her. Not bothering to get into her proper stance, Alicia lifted the bat behind her head and brought it down on top of the walkers head like and axe with as much force as she could muster. She had closed her eyes mid swing, but the sickening (and somewhat satisfying) crunch that reached her ears and the vibrations that ran down the bat and through her arms told her she had hit her mark.

Blood and brain matter had sprayed across her face when her bat made contact but she didn’t bother wiping her face as she opened her eyes to see her bat embedded in the top of the zombie’s head.

Alicia wrenched her bat out of the now still walker’s head as she looked up just in time to see the blonde girl before her spin around after pulling her blade out of the last walker’s skull, clearly now aware she wasn’t alone given the commotion that she must have heard behind her.

Alicia studied the girl across from her as the blonde’s eyes looked down to the walker with a crushed head now slumped at Alicia’s feet.

_She’s beautiful_. Alicia found herself thinking. _Shut up_. She mentally scolded herself. _Now is so not the time_. But there was no denying it, even with the blood that coated the other girl’s face and what Alicia assumed used to be a white shirt, her beauty was irrefutable.

Before she could think any more on the attractiveness of the blonde bombshell that now stood before her, the other girl’s slightly shocked gaze lifted from the walker between them and up to Alicia’s face. Sky blue eyes met forest green, and suddenly Alicia forgot what she was thinking a moment ago. Her mind went blank and her breath caught in her throat as she found her gaze locked with the blonde’s across from her.

Alicia wasn’t sure how long they stood like that, eyes locked both in shock and perhaps a little bit of awe. But just as her brain began to function normally again, she saw the blonde’s eyes quickly snap away from her own and lock on something behind Alicia.

“Run!” the Aussie said quietly but urgently. Without hesitating or offering any further explanation she grabbed Alicia’s arm with the hand that wasn’t holding her katana and pulled her beside her as the two began running down the street in the opposite direction Alicia had come. Alicia was momentarily confused before she snapped completely out of the haze she had been in moments ago and heard the loud moans coming from behind them. She didn’t turn around to look, she didn’t need to and it would only serve to slow her down. Only a very large hoard of walkers could make a noise as loud as the one that reached her ears now.

Once she was sure Alicia was going to stick with her, the blonde let go of her arm and sheathed her katana in the holder strapped to her back without slowing down even a step. The two continued their sprint down the street before the Aussie grabbed Alicia’s left arm once more and pulled her towards another alley Alicia now saw ahead on their left.

“This way.” The other girl said as she dropped Alicia’s arm. “We can lose those fuckers down here and it’ll take us back to my place. Two birds with one stone, pretty smart eh beautiful?”

Alicia glanced to her left at the girl beside her who was now grinning widely. _Is she flirting with me? She is. She’s flirting with me while we are literally running for our lives._

Alicia didn’t respond, she simply rolled her eyes and continued forwards. She wasn’t sure if she could respond even if she had an appropriate counter to this strange girl’s comment. She hadn’t done anything remotely active since the world went to shit, and that fact was now painfully apparent. Alicia was gasping for air through burning lungs as they bolted down the alley the blonde had pointed them towards and continued twisting and turning down other dark passages here and there. The bag containing the few supplies she had managed to grab before everything went to hell smacked painfully into her back with each step she took. Alicia could no longer feel her legs beneath her, her mouth was dry from her desperate attempts to heave as much air as possible into her lungs and she was certain she was moments away from passing out before the blonde mercifully slowed her sprint to a walk.

Alicia bent over at the waist and put her hands on her knees as she tried desperately to catch her breath.

“I just… I just need a minute.” She panted at the other girl who hadn’t noticed Alicia had stopped and was now a few feet ahead of her.

“Wee bit out of shape are we? That’s alright love take your time, it’s not like there’s a hoard of walkers on our tail or anything.” The girl said, looking down at Alicia’s exhausted form with an expression that clearly showed she was enjoying teasing the girl immensely. She also didn’t appear to be the least bit winded from their sprint, a realization which Alicia found made her feel both annoyed and impressed.

“Funny you should mention it, I went to the gym just last week to get a membership but for some reason they were closed.” Alicia replied sharply, sarcasm dripping from each syllable she spoke. The blonde may be incredibly good looking, but Alicia was now learning she was also incredibly annoying.

A laugh escaped the blonde’s lips. It was lighter than Alicia was expecting given the Aussies rough voice and Alicia tried to ignore just how beautiful the sound was.

“I’m just messing with you gorgeous. Besides we lost those stupid dead fucks a few streets over. It’s smooth sailing from here to my place.” The blonde said as she crossed her arms over her bloody white t-shirt and continued to study Alicia with a slightly bemused look on her face.

As her breathing and heart rate began to return to a somewhat normal rhythm Alicia straightened up to face the girl in front of her properly. She was about the same height as Alicia, maybe an inch or two shorter, and despite the loose t-shirt she wore Alicia could tell the girl was very fit though still had a few curves if the tightness of her jeans was any indication. Alicia quickly brought her eyes back up to the Aussies face as she felt her face burn white hot when she realized she had just been essentially checking the other girl out.

She forced herself to speak before the blonde could make some comment that would cause her face to burn even hotter than it already was.

“Your place?” She asked.

“Yes doll, _my_ place. Unless you’d like to spend the night out here?” She finished by gesturing absently with her hand at the obvious lack of shelter on the street around them.

Alicia had to bite back the response to being called ‘doll’ that sprang onto her tongue, and chose instead to focus on the latter part of the girl’s comment.

“Look, I really appreciate you helping me get away from that hoard back there but I can’t come back to your place. I have to find my family. If you could just point me in the right direction then we can go our separate ways and that’ll be that. No need to drag this out.” Alicia said.

The girl simply continued staring at Alicia, a light smile playing along her perfect pink lips as her tongue darted out to wet them before she spoke.

“I hate to be the one to tell you this love, but we are a long ways away from where you found me kicking ass and taking names earlier today. The sun is already starting to set and even if your family is still back there you’d never find them before dark. So it looks like, for the time being, you’re stuck with me.” The Aussie said.

Alicia felt anger burning deep in her chest, not at this girl (annoying as she was), but rather at the fucked up situation she now found herself in. She was right, there was no way Alicia would be able to find Nick, Travis and Daniel today and she was sure they were now just as far from the ship. It didn’t seem she had much choice but the follow the beautiful blonde back to her place for the night.

The thought briefly crossed her mind that she probably shouldn’t trust this girl so easily, this new world was a dangerous place after all and this could easily be some kind of trap. Especially since she knew nothing about the Aussie besides the fact that she was inhumanly attractive, swore like a sailor, flirted like a teenage boy and could wield a blade better than any TV character Alicia had ever seen. But her wariness about this girl and her intentions was quickly taken over by the understanding that Alicia currently didn’t have any choice but to trust her. This girl and wherever she was planning on taking her were her best shot at survival, whether Alicia liked it or not.

“Don’t look so upset sweet cheeks, I’ll help you find them tomorrow once we’ve had a good meal and washed off the rest of those undead bastards. We better get a move on though, the dead are always hungry.” She finished with a wink before turning around and walking down the street away from Alicia.

Alicia clenched her jaw and closed her eyes briefly, breathing deep and attempting to calm herself down.

_This girl is going to be the death of me_. She thought absently. _But what a beautiful way to go_. Another voice piped up. She promptly told that voice to go to hell before opening her eyes and moving to catch up to the blonde.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Found her.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Elyza is flirty, Alicia is adorable, that is all.

Alicia walked in silence beside the blonde stranger beside her, feeling the girl's gaze land on her every so often but refusing to return the look. Partially because she didn’t want to give her the satisfaction, but mostly because her brain seemed to shut down slightly every time her eyes met the blonde’s gorgeous blue ones (though that's not to say she didn't catch herself glancing at the other girl more than once when she knew her eyes were turned away from the brunette). 

After ten minutes had passed with nothing but stolen glances and the sound of sneakers hitting the pavement, the blonde finally broke the silence between them. 

“So are you going to tell me your name or what? Because, while bat-wielding-walker-killing-brunette-beauty is a very accurate name, it’s a bit of a mouthful.” The girl said, a smile evident in her raspy voice.

Alicia rolled her eyes and sighed in exasperation. “Is there ever a time where you _aren’t_ acting like a flirtatious pre-teen?” She asked.

The girl next to her laughed again and Alicia’s heart fluttered at the sound. _Keep it together._ She thought to herself. _She’s hot, yes, but she’s irritating as hell and could probably kill you with both hands tied behind her back._

“The answer to your question is no. Why, would you like me to stop? I get the feeling you kinda like it.”

Ignoring the girl’s question, Alicia chose to try to bring the conversation as far away from flirting (and whether or not she liked it) as possible and back to the girl’s initial question.

“My name’s Alicia.” She said simply, still refusing to look at the blonde.

“Well _Alicia_ ,” The girl paused, being sure to exaggerate each syllable of Alicia’s name as she said it. “Thank you for saving my sexy Aussie ass this afternoon. It’s quite a nice one if I do say so myself and I’m sure the rest of the world thanks you as well for keeping it around a little while longer.”

Alicia breathed deeply in an attempt to calm her now very rapid heart rate. She hadn’t been trying to stare, but when she was walking to catch up to the Aussie earlier her eyes may or may not have landed on the girl’s backside once or twice. She had to agree with the girl (though she’d _never_ give her the satisfaction of saying it out loud), she did have a very nice ass.

In an attempt to bring her mind away from the blonde’s ass and back to the present, Alicia cleared her throat before speaking.

“You’re welcome, though it’s really no big deal. Anyone else would have done the same.” She said simply, finally allowing herself to glance to her left at the blonde who smiled in response as she looked ahead.

“That’s where you’re wrong, love. Very few people would have come to help me like you did, most would have preferred saving their own skin over saving mine. Fucked up as that is, that’s the world now.” She finished with a light shrug as if to brush of the scary truth of her words.

“I’m Elyza by the way. Nice to meet you gorgeous.” She said as she turned her head to face Alicia once more with her trademark grin plastered across her face.

“I do have a name you know, and it’s not gorgeous or doll or love or beautiful. Now that you know what it is you should try using it a little more often.” Alicia responded with a huff. To her annoyance, Elyza’s grin simply grew at her response.

“But if I used your actual name, I wouldn’t get to see you blush every time I called you gorgeous, or doll, or love, or beautiful.” She said with a wink.

Alicia’s breath caught in her throat. She didn’t blush every time the blonde used one of her nicknames on her, did she? No, there was no way. Elyza was messing with her and judging by the slight chuckle Alicia heard beside her, she knew it was working. Before Alicia could even think to respond however, Elyza was talking once again.

“Ah, here we are. Home sweet home.” She said as they approached what appeared to be an old record store on the left side of the street. Alicia hadn’t been paying much attention to her surroundings as the two walked, but she suddenly realized they must have been walking for quite a while as she became aware that dusk had begun to fall around them.

Alicia was briefly confused at the idea of the girl living inside the record store before Elyza opened a door just to the right of the store’s entrance which revealed a set of stairs she presumed led to the blonde’s apartment above the shop.

“After you, _Alicia_.” Elyza said, once again emphasizing her use of Alicia’s name simply because she knew it would piss the young brunette off.

Alicia glared at the blonde holding the door open for her as she stepped around her and began to climb the stairs. The hall was musty and smelled like a mixture of old wood and what she recognized to be the unmistakable smell of vinyl which she assumed radiated in from the store just beyond the wall to her left.

Alicia had always loved listening to music, new or old, on vinyl records. Her infatuation with them had begun when she was just ten years old and her father had sat her on his lap while he played The Beatles' iconic album Let It Be for her on his old record player. From that moment on, music had been a passion the two of them had shared and they would often spend their weekends searching for new artists or old favourites at record shops around the city. After he died she used music as a way to feel connected to him, sometimes just sitting in his old study listening to one of the records they had found together and allowing the sounds and smells to taker her mind back to those old record shops with her father where she was always happiest.  

She found herself instantly relaxing as the smell of the stairwell surrounded her like a comforting blanket. She never thought she’d get to smell old records again and, strange as it sounds, that had made her incredibly sad. She found herself now fighting off both happy and sad tears as she reached the landing at the top of the stairs and moved aside so Elyza could reach the large metal door in front of her.

“The smell’s a little much, I know, but you’ll get used to it.” Elyza said as she reached into her back pocket for her keys.

“No it’s not too much at all. I’ve always loved the smell of vinyl records.” Alicia heard herself say.

_What the hell are you doing?!_ She thought to herself, scolding her stupid mouth for speaking out of turn. She had no idea why she suddenly felt like admitting she loved the smell of old records to Elyza, a girl she hadn’t known for more than a few hours. It wasn’t like it was a huge secret, but it was a very personal thing to Alicia, and she rarely shared personal things with her family let alone random Australian strangers.

Alicia saw Elyza’s face soften slightly at her words as she looked at her and smiled what Alicia though was probably the first genuine smile she’d seen the girl give since meeting her. It lit up the blonde’s beautiful features and caused her blue eyes to shine in a way that made Alicia’s stomach flip and she had to force herself to look away from the stunning sight.

“You might be the first person to ever say that about my place. We’re going to get along just fine Little Bean.” She said as she put the key she had retrieved from her pocket into the lock of the door.

Of course she had to ruin her beautiful smile with another stupid nickname.

“I am _not_ a little bean.” Alicia said defiantly, crossing her arms in front of her chest for good measure.

Before turning the key, Elyza rounded to look at the brunette standing beside her, her stupid grin back in place. She looked Alicia up and down _very_ slowly before meeting her eyes once more.

“Sorry sweet cheeks, but you are _most definitely_ a little bean. Granted, you’re a very sexy little bean.” She said before finally turning the key and stepping into the apartment ahead of Alicia.

Thankfully, by the time the blush caused by Elyza’s comment had traveled up Alicia’s neck and to her cheeks, the other girl was already inside the apartment so she was unable to see the brunette’s now very red face. 

Shaking her head slightly to try and clear it, Alicia followed Elyza into the apartment and paused once inside the door to take in her surroundings. She was happy to realize the smell of vinyl was still present inside the girl’s apartment, though it was less strong and mixed with the sweet scent of vanilla.

Elyza’s apartment was actually a large, long studio made up of a single room broken up with different pieces of furniture to differentiate between the separate areas of the space. Two large windows on the wall across from her allowed in what little sun remained outside, but they were large enough that despite the fact that the sun was close to setting outside enough light streamed into the apartment to light the entire space.

There was a small kitchen against the wall to her right with an island that overlooked the rest of the apartment. The countertops were a white granite while the lower and upper cabinets were a dark mahogany colour. Directly across from her was a small wooden dining table surrounded by four chairs. To the left next to that was the living area, with one large grey sofa flanked by two very comfy looking lounge chairs which all faced the flat screen television that stood on a stand against the same wall as the door Alicia had just come through. Behind the couch was what appeared to be a small workout space with rubber mats, weights, a few deadly looking blades and a large human size block of wood that had multiple chunks missing from it as though the blades hanging next to it had been used on it multiple times. Just beyond the living area near the far end of the apartment were two dark purple curtains pulled back slightly so Alicia could see a large queen sized bed with a grey comforter underneath a window along the back wall. The floors were a smooth grey concrete and there were dark wood beams, pillars and trim scattered throughout the apartment. The walls that weren’t covered in red brick were painted white and there were many colourful paintings decorating them here and there. Alicia begrudgingly admitted to herself that, while Elyza could be endlessly annoying, she did have very good taste.

Alicia turned to the sound of Elyza closing and locking the large black metal door behind her.

“Welcome to casa del Lyza!” She said with a smirk as she opened her arms wide to gesture around her apartment. She strolled over to a hook on the wall beside the door as she shrugged out of her jacket and hung it up while Alicia remained rooted in her spot, still trying to take everything in around her.

Elyza began walking towards her bedroom as she continued talking.

“Bathroom is just off my bedroom back here, you’re more than welcome to shower. In fact, I’m going to make a formal request of it. You stink like the dead Little Bean. There’s a towel in there that you can use and I’ll grab you some clothes to throw on when you’re done. Just don’t take too long I still have hot water but I’m wary about how long it will last.” Suddenly Elyza stopped in her tracks just before the curtains separating her bedroom from the rest of the space when she realized Alicia was still frozen in front of the door.

“Alicia, are you alright?” Elyza said, now turning to look at the other girl. Alicia didn’t miss the fact that this was the first time the blonde had used her name properly.

“Why are you helping me?” The brunette blurted out the question that had been burning in the back of her mind ever since Elyza had first offered to let her spend the night at her place and help her find her family the next day. Before Elyza had a chance to respond, however, Alicia continued.

“What you said earlier about people saving themselves before others in this new, fucked up world was right. People were self-serving before the dead started wandering through the streets and they have only gotten worse since then. So why help me?”

Alicia forced her green eyes up to meet Elyza’s piercing blue ones as she tried to gage the other girl’s reaction to her words.

Elyza let out an almost silent sight before responding.

“You saved my life earlier today, I owe you. Plus…” She paused briefly before continuing. “I’ve been alone for some time now. It’ll be nice to have some company, even if it’s just for the night.”

With these words, Alicia saw Elyza’s confident, cocky façade falter slightly. The blonde’s face remained as stoic as ever, but it was in her sapphire blue eyes that Alicia caught a brief glimpse of something more. Was it longing? Sadness? Perhaps even fear? Alicia couldn’t be certain, but she was now sure that this girl wasn’t nearly as self-assured and unaffected by the world around her as she wanted others to believe.

And then, because apparently Elyza couldn’t stand to be serious for longer than thirty seconds, she ruined her momentary honesty with her next sentence.

“Besides, if you weren’t here the only pretty thing I’d have to look at is me. And while I could never get tired of this face, carrying a mirror around 24/7 just isn’t very practical.” She smirked at Alicia once more and winked.

“You are absolutely exhausting.” Alicia grumbled as she began crossing the apartment towards Elyza. This only served to pull the girl’s grin farther across her face as she leaned slightly towards Alicia.

“Oh you have _no idea_. Though I'd be happy to show you just how exhausting I can be.” She said huskily. Alicia felt her mouth go dry as she took in the double meaning of the girls words, and of course her face went fucking beat red as well. Damn this girl was good.

Elyza flashed her a very satisfied smile, having obviously seen the blush her words had caused to spread across the brunette’s face, before she turned into her bedroom and headed to a large black wardrobe on the wall to her left. After a few moments of searching she pulled out a large black t-shirt and a pair of red plaid pyjama pants.

“These should fit you fine Little Bean.” She said as she handed the clothes off to Alicia who grabbed them rather awkwardly with her free hand. She hadn’t even noticed that she was still holding her now blood soaked bat.

Elyza seemed to just notice that fact now too. “I can take that off your hands if you’d like. Last time I checked my bathroom was walker free so you shouldn’t be needing it.”

Alicia nodded slightly as she handed her bat over to Elyza. She tried (and failed) to ignore the slight tingle that ran up her arm when their fingers brushed together as Elyza took the bat from her.

“Bathroom is through there.” Elyza said, pointing to a door on the other side of the bed to their right.

“Just toss your clothes outside of the door and I’ll wash them for you. I’ll just be in the living room if you need anything.” Elyza finished by gesturing to the living space beyond the purple curtains beside them.

“Thanks.” Alicia mumbled as she began making her way to the bathroom.

She flipped on the bathroom light before closing the door behind her and pausing once more to look around. The floor was covered in a white-grey honeycomb tile and the walls were white, the light floors and walls broken up only by the dark brown trim that carried in from the rest of the apartment. The toilet was against the wall directly across from Alicia, and there was a black floating vanity to her right with a smooth white countertop much like the one she saw in the kitchen earlier. She placed the clothes Elyza had given her on the counter before turning to take in the absolutely _massive_ stand up shower that took up the entire left side of the bathroom and was separated from the rest of the space only by a few large glass panels.

Now very aware of the dry and sticky blood coating her skin and clothes, Alicia quickly took her backpack off and began stripping out of her clothes. She slipped her phone out of her back pocket and placed it securely in her backpack before placing both her shoes and bag beside the door. Once she had removed all her clothes she opened the door just a crack to throw them outside of the bathroom as Elyza had instructed.

She turned the handle on the right wall of the shower and jumped out of the way as cold water came flowing out of the rainfall showerhead above her. She waited about thirty seconds for the water to warm up before stepping under the showerhead and allowing the steaming hot water to wash over her. Alicia was powerless against the small moan that escaped her lips as the warm water flowed over her aching muscles. She stood still under the steady stream for a few moments, allowing the water to help relax her body slightly before quickly using the different shampoos and soaps Elyza had to clean the gore and sweat from her body that had accumulated throughout the day.

Stepping out of the shower onto the cool tile floor once she was completely blood-free she grabbed one of the towels hanging on the back of the door. She dried herself off as best she could before hanging the towel back on the door and pulling on the clothes Elyza had provided for her. 

They fit her surprisingly well, though the shirt was quite loose but Alicia assumed it was meant to be worn that way. However, what Alicia failed to notice but quickly realized when she stood in front of the mirror above the vanity, were the bold white letters across the chest of the black t-shirt that said _Make America Gay Again_.

Her anger flared at the blonde in the other room. Elyza knew exactly what shirt she had given Alicia, of that the brunette was sure. She sighed heavily and glared at her reflection as she began combing through her damp hair with her fingers, anger still bubbling in her chest. There was nothing she could do about her current clothing situation, but that didn’t mean she had to like it. The blonde was relentless in her attempts to rattle Alicia, and after this latest stunt she was more determined than ever to find a way to beat the Australian at her own game.  

Once her fingers were able to run through her hair without snagging on anymore tangles, Alicia grabbed her bag and shoes from the floor and headed out to the living room where Elyza had said she would be.

Rounding the wall of curtains from Elyza’s bedroom Alicia found the girl lounging on the couch with a book in her hand and her feet propped up on the coffee table in front of her. Hearing Alicia approach, the blonde set the book down beside her before turning to look at her, immediately breaking into a fit of laughter at the sight Alicia in her shirt.

Ignoring the way Elyza’s laughter tugged at the corners of her lips and made her stomach drop in the best possible way, Alicia narrowed her eyes at the still hysterical girl and rested her hands on her hips.

“You just think you’re fucking hilarious, don’t you?” Alicia said angrily.

Elyza took a moment to catch her breath before responding.

“As a matter of fact, yes I do. Though I’ll admit that shirt looks much better on you than it does on me.” She straightened up slightly on the couch before her smile disappeared and she continued in a more serious tone.

“But in all seriousness Alicia, my people and I thank you for your support.” She finished by placing her hand over her heart and bowing her head slightly towards the still fuming brunette.

Suddenly Alicia saw an opportunity to finally get back at the quick talking Aussie.

“Your people? What I think you meant to say there, Elyza, was _our_ people.” She said, raising her eyebrows slightly. She was rewarded with a very shocked and, _finally_ , a very speechless Elyza.

She wasn’t saying that just to mess with Elyza, as enjoyable as the girl’s surprise at her comment was it was merely a bonus to her voicing the truth. She’d known for some time that she was bisexual. While she’d never been with anyone (male or female) outside of Matt, she was well aware that she was attracted to both sexes. Although if she hadn’t known before today, her inability to keep her eyes off Elyza for longer than a few minutes would have been a good indicator of her sexual orientation.

Elyza still had yet to recover from Alicia’s words, so with a satisfied smirk the young brunette walked towards the door and set her shoes and bag next to it under the Aussies leather jacket that still hung on its hook above.

It was only when Alicia began to straighten up from setting her belongings down that Elyza seemed to find her voice once more, though there was a slight tremor to it that wasn’t present moments ago.

“I uh… I washed your clothes in the sink and hung them on the dining room chairs to dry. I’m just gonna shower quick and then we can eat.” She said as she rose from the couch slowly, eyes never leaving Alicia.

Alicia leaned against the door beside her before crossing her arms and looking at Elyza, her smug grin still present knowing full well that the blonde was still recovering from the bomb Alicia had just dropped in her lap.

“Sounds good, thanks. Enjoy your shower.” She finished with a wink.

_Where the fuck did that come from?_   She thought to herself. She’d never been particularly flirty, but the apparently the confidence that knocking Elyza down a few pegs with her previous comment had brought Alicia made her more eager to try and continue matching the Aussie’s flirtatious advances.

Elyza opened her mouth as though to say something more but quickly snapped it shut as she turned and headed back towards her bedroom. Alicia watched her walk away with a smirk. Two could play at this game, and she was just getting started. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alicia is such a little bean I can't even deal


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter picks up right where the last one left off. More jokes, good music, and some serious shit because it is the zombie apocalypse after all

Still grinning to herself, Alicia made her way to the couch where she plopped herself down rather ungracefully. The couch really was quite comfortable, and she slung her feet up onto the coffee table in front of her much the same as Elyza had done earlier before resting her head on the cushion behind her and closing her eyes.

After a few moments of sitting like this, however, Alicia became aware of just how _quiet_ the apartment now was. The only noise that reached her ears was the distant sound of the water running in Elyza’s shower. As irritating as Elyza’s constant flirting was, it had distracted Alicia from realizing the gravity of her current situation. But now she found herself alone for the first time since finding Elyza, and the silence was deafening. Alicia quickly found herself being suffocated by it as the events of the day began to creep up on her and settle in her chest. Before she could start to completely freak out about being in some strange girl’s apartment miles away from her family with no knowledge of where they were or if they were even alive, she stood up and began to inspect Elyza’s apartment more closely in an attempt to distract herself.

A large lamp on a side table to the right of the couch was the only source of light in the living area, but it was bright enough to allow Alicia to clearly see everything around her.

The brunette’s eyes were quickly drawn to a record player sitting on a small table between the television and the curtains leading to Elyza’s bedroom which she hadn’t noticed earlier. Next to the player was a long, waist-high shelf that was filled to the breaking point with vinyl records and Alicia quickly moved towards it to get a closer look.

She began rifling through the hundreds of records Elyza appeared to have, and was mildly impressed by the girl’s wide range in music taste. She had everything from AC/DC to Vance Joy to Eminem. Alicia even saw a Thomas Rhett album and, while she wasn’t a huge country music fan, she did enjoy a few of his less ‘twangy’ songs. Before she was able to make it through even a quarter of Elyza’s albums however, she was startled by the blonde’s raspy voice directly behind her.

“Do you know any of that music Little Bean?”

Alicia turned quickly as her hand flew to her chest in shock. She hadn’t even heard Elyza approach and yet the girl now stood just a foot behind her.

“Jesus Christ Elyza you scared the shit out of me! How the hell did you get out here so quietly?” Alicia asked as her heart rate began to slow back down to a more normal rhythm.

Elyza chuckled at the brunette’s stunned expression. “Sorry about that, I don’t try to sneak around its just kinda habit now. Anyways, see anything you like? Besides me of course.”

Alicia rolled her eyes before turning back to the massive record collection she had been admiring earlier.

“Actually, I have to admit you have pretty good taste in music. Though I’m a little upset I haven’t seen Kaleo’s album yet. They’re one of my favourite bands.”

Elyza raised her eyebrows, she was both shocked and impressed that the brunette seemed to share her rather broad and some might say unusual taste in music.

Alicia felt her body stiffen slightly as Elyza knelt down beside her, they were close enough that she could feel the heat of the blonde’s body next to her and could smell her vanilla shampoo.

The blonde reached beneath the table the record player stood on and plugged its power chord into the outlet on the wall. Alicia watched as the other girl stood up once more and dropped the needle onto the record that was already in position on the machine and waiting to be played. Moments later JJ Julius Son’s smooth voice flowed out of the speakers as ‘All the Pretty Girls’ began playing softly. Elyza turned to face a still kneeling Alicia, a small smile on her face.

“They’re one of my favourites too, which is why their album was already on my record player. You’ve got good taste in music Little Bean, it’s good to know you’re not just a pretty face.” She winked and turned back to the record player to adjust the volume slightly.

For once Alicia wasn’t bothered by the other girl’s flirty comments, she was too lost in the music to be as affected by Elyza as she had been earlier.

When she was satisfied with the volume of the music, Elyza began walking towards the kitchen to get the two girls something to eat for dinner. Alicia hadn’t noticed how hungry she was until that moment and she quickly followed the blonde before sitting down on one of the bar stools placed along the island.

“Normally when cooking for a pretty girl I make something a little more extravagant, but I’m hopeful that you’ll cut me some slack due to the fact that the zombie apocalypse has severely limited my menu options.” Elyza said, pulling two cans of fried beans out of the cupboard across from Alicia.

The brunette didn’t respond, instead choosing to continue enjoying the music playing behind her as she watched Elyza poor the cans’ contents into a pot before setting it on the gas stove and lighting the burner beneath it.

Once finished, Elyza turned around to face the brunette across the island from her, crossing her arms on the counter and leaning on them slightly. She studied Alicia silently, eyes roaming across the young girl’s face while a small smile played along the edge of her pink lips.

As much as Alicia wanted to look away from the gorgeous blonde that stood across from her, she refused to let herself falter beneath the other girl’s quizzical gaze. So she kept her emerald green eyes locked steadily onto Elyza’s sky blue ones, despite the fact that her heart continued to flutter irregularly the longer she looked into those beautiful pools of blue.

Soon Alicia couldn’t take the silence any longer and she asked the blonde another question that had been running through her mind for some time now.

“So, what exactly were you doing alone in the middle of a street fighting a hoard of walkers miles away from your apartment?”

“Practice.” Elyza replied simply with a light shrug of her shoulders like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“Practice?” Alicia repeated in confusion.

“Yes Little Bean, _practice_. How can I be expected to fight of walkers during a real threat if I don’t practice on them in the meantime? I’m damn good at killing those undead shit-heads, but that doesn’t mean I won’t get rusty if I don’t keep my skills up. ‘Sides, it gets kinda boring hacking away at that immobile block of wood behind you, I needed a challenge.” Elyza turned to stir the pot of beans that had begun to boil slightly on the stove behind her.

Alicia was still frozen in her seat looking at the back of the girl across from her in shock, her mouth hanging open slightly. When she had recovered enough to close her mouth, she spoke once more.

“So you mean to tell me that you went out _looking_ for walkers so that you could practice killing them in preparation for a ‘real’ life or death scenario? Do you have any idea how insane that is? You literally put yourself in a life or death situation to practice for one.” Alicia couldn’t believe what this girl was telling her, or how calm she seemed to be about the entire thing. Like looking for walkers to fight despite the obvious dangers was completely and totally normal.

Elyza grabbed two bowls from above the stove before turning to set them on the island and looking back up to Alicia’s still stunned face with a smile plastered across her own.

“Well when you put it like that, I agree it does make me sound like a bit of a nutter. But I know you saw me mowing those fuckers down like it was my day job, which means you also know I am more than capable of handling myself.”

Alicia gave her an exasperated look before responding.

“Oh yeah Elyza, I saw you ‘mowing those fuckers down’ alright, right before I jumped in and saved you. If I hadn’t been there your cocky Australian ass would be out on the streets right now shuffling along with the rest of the dead.” Alicia crossed her arms in front of her chest and looked at Elyza defiantly, daring her to dispute any part of what she had just said.

Elyza waved her hand in the air dismissively. “Eh, minor details.”

Ignoring the glare the brunette shot across the island at her, Elyza faced the stove behind her once more and turned the burner off before distributing the pot’s contents evenly between the two bowls she had set out earlier. After putting the pot back on the stove and throwing a spoon in each bowl she walked around the island and slid one bowl in front of Alicia before sitting down on a stool beside her.

The girls began eating in a comfortable silence, the only sounds filling the apartment being the clinking of spoons and the music that continued to flow through the record player’s speakers.

After a few minutes however, Elyza broke the silence with a question of her own.

“What about you? What were you doing out on the streets alone?” She asked.

Alicia swallowed the spoonful of beans she had just shoveled into her mouth before responding.

“I wasn’t alone. At least, not at first. I was on a supply run with my brother, my mom’s fiancé and another guy we had met a few weeks ago. We were in a grocery store when a huge hoard stormed the entrance and we got separated. I was looking for them when I heard you shouting.” Alicia explained.

Elyza looked at her in confusion.

“So, you’re telling me you abandoned your search for your family to follow the shouts of some random stranger?”

Alicia shrugged.

“Yeah. I mean I had no idea where they had gone, but your yelling told me you were close so I figured I might as well try to help you if I could. I wasn’t about to just let someone get attacked by walkers if I knew I could help.”

Elyza shook her head and looked at Alicia in bewilderment for a few moments before speaking again.

“You have no idea how unprecedented you are, do you?”

Alicia was forced to look away from the blonde’s smoldering blue eyes as her cheeks flushed red, but this time her blush wasn’t the result of one of Elyza’s flirtatious advances. What Elyza had said about her, combined with the almost reverent tone she had used when speaking, made Alicia feel more vulnerable than all of the girl’s previous words combined.

In an attempt to move the attention away from herself, Alicia asked the girl beside her another question that had been bothering her.

“So how did you learn to fight so well? I can’t image you would have picked up that much skill over the few weeks since the apocalypse started.”

Still refusing to look beside her, Alicia scooped another spoonful of beans into her mouth as she waited for Elyza to respond.

“My dad taught me. He was a sergeant in the military before being wounded in battle. His injury stopped him from being able to fight, but he was a damn good sergeant and so the military transferred him here from his base in Australia to help train other soldiers. My mom and I moved here with him when I was about 12. She was a surgeon and worked long hours at the hospital, so most days after school I would spend time with my dad on the base.” She paused briefly to collect her thoughts. Alicia didn’t miss the fact that she talked about both of her parents in the past-tense, nor the hint of sadness that had crept into her voice as she spoke of them. After a moment of silence Elyza continued.

“He used that time on the base to teach me all there was to know about fighting with guns, knives, and even hand to hand combat, much to my mother’s disapproval. But I loved it, especially when he let me train with the knives, and she could see how passionate I was about learning and honing the few skills he had been able to teach me. So she allowed my father’s afterschool lessons to continue and when I was 15 they also enrolled me in Kendo classes which is where I learned to use the katana you saw me with earlier.” Elyza was silent again, and Alicia chanced a glance over at her.

Elyza was blinking rapidly and shaking her head slightly as though she couldn’t believe all that she had just revealed about herself. Alicia was beginning to understand that, while the girl seemed to be talking almost constantly, it was rarely about anything to do with herself.

Alicia understood this girl’s apparent desire to keep her personal life personal, and so rather than press her about why she had suddenly decided to open up she remained silent and allowed the blonde some time to be alone with her thoughts in peace. After a few moments of silence, Alicia spoke again in an attempt to lighten the now very sombre mood.

“So… what you’re really saying is you have a very particular set of skills, skills you have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make you a nightmare for walkers.” She said in her best Liam Neeson impersonation.

She was rewarded for her efforts by the small smile that turned up the corners of Elyza’s mouth as she turned to look at the brunette once more.

“You swing a bat better than Barry Bonds, have a wicked taste in music, and now you’re quoting one of my all-time favourite movies at me? I think I might be in love.” Elyza said, earning an eye roll from the girl beside her in response.

The two finished the rest of their meal in silence and once Elyza was done cleaning their bowls she began lighting candles that Alicia now became aware littered the apartment. Once she had finished lighting the fifteen or so candles that were spread throughout the apartment she flipped off the lamp beside the couch so the space was only lit by the flames flickering softly around them.  

Alicia raised her eyebrows questioningly at the blonde who had just turned around to look at her. Normally Alicia wouldn’t have thought much of the girl using candles to light the apartment, but her previous flirting combined with the very... intimate atmosphere the candles created had her wondering what exactly the blonde’s intentions were.

Elyza met Alicia’s questioning look with a confused expression of her own before everything clicked in her brain and she rolled her eyes before putting the matches away in the kitchen.

“Relax Alicia, I’m not trying to ‘set the mood’ or anything like that. I enjoy flirting with you immensely, but I’m not a complete perve. I just prefer to use candles to light my place at night, it draws less unwanted attention and sometimes the lights randomly go off and I can’t see shit so this way I’m prepared.” She crossed back to the living room and sat down on the couch much the same as she had been earlier.

Satisfied with the girl’s explanation, Alicia got up from her stool at the island and retrieved her bag from beside the door before joining Elyza on the couch.

“What’s in the bag gorgeous?” Elyza asked stretching her arms above her head and watching as Alicia unzipped the backpack at her feet.

“Just my phone and the few supplies I actually managed to grab before the walkers showed up.”

As soon as Elyza got a look at what was inside the bag, she sat up quickly and leaned towards the other girl.

“Oh my god you found tampons?!” She said excitedly.

_Finally, someone who gets it_. Alicia thought, remembering Nick, Travis and Daniel’s unimpressed reactions to her excitement over the supplies that she was now pulling out of her bag.

“Yeah I picked them up right before we were overrun by walkers. I’m glad you’re as thrilled about them as I was, my family didn’t really seem to get what the big fuss was. I’ve also got some cans of food in here, we could split it all between us if you’d like. It’s the least I could do for you helping me.” Elyza nodded with an enthusiastic smile.

“That’d be great! You can also try charging your phone if you want. I know you can’t text or call anyone, but I’m guessing from the headphones plugged into it you’ll want it for your music.”

Alicia returned the other girl’s smile. Her phone’s increasingly low battery had been a constant worry in the back of her mind for the last few days and she was relieved to know she might be able to have her music for a little while longer.

When the two had finished dividing the bag’s contents evenly on the coffee table, Elyza put her half of the supplies away in the kitchen and bathroom before grabbing Alicia’s phone and plugging it in in her room to charge. Alicia returned her share of the supplies to the backpack and placed it back beside her shoes next to the door.

She turned to see Elyza emerge from her bedroom and walk towards the record player with a blanket and pillow under her arm. The music had stopped playing a few minutes ago, and so Elyza unplugged the machine once more before standing up and facing Alicia.

“This couch isn’t exactly a California king I know, but you should be comfortable enough on it for tonight.” She said as she placed the pillow at one end of the couch before laying the blanket out along it.

“No this is great, thank you.” Alicia said from her spot by the door.

Once Elyza was satisfied with the positioning of the blanket and pillow she straightened up to look at Alicia.

“If you need anything I’ll just be in my bedroom. Goodnight Little Bean.”

Alicia didn’t even bother rolling her eyes at Elyza’s use of her apparent new nickname, in fact it was starting to grow on her despite her earlier insistence that the blonde use her actual name.

“Goodnight Elyza.” She replied. And with a small smile the blonde turned back to her bedroom, pulling the curtains closed behind her.

Alicia made her way to the couch, sliding under the blanket and letting out a breath she hadn’t realized she had been holding as her head hit the pillow.

The silence that had overwhelmed her earlier was back with a vengeance, and so was the panic it brought. She could feel her chest tightening and her breathing increase as she laid on the couch without anything to distract her from the fucked up situation she now found herself in. She couldn’t stop her mind from running through any and all possible scenarios that could arise the next day, from the happy to the downright terrifying. She knew there was a very real possibility she wouldn’t find her family alive tomorrow, but perhaps even scarier was the idea of never finding them at all.

She thought perhaps she should feel like crying, but all she really wanted to do was scream. She refused to let herself break though, swallowing the scream building in her chest and forcing her breathing back to a normal rhythm. She wasn’t sure how long the laid there with her eyes open trying to keep her fear at bay as sleep continued to evade her. When her eyes finally closed, her dreams were filled with dead family members, bloodthirsty walkers, blonde hair, and blue eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love Kaleo, so these gay assholes love them too. If you haven't heard the album A/B I highly recommend giving it a listen. Or don't, whatever floats your boat


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bit of a filler chapter with some cute sleepy Alicia, motivational Elyza, and more shitty jokes thrown in for continuity and because I just couldn't resist

Alicia was brought out of her restless sleep rather abruptly by a loud bang from the kitchen followed by a certain blonde shouting one of her favourite swear words (who was she kidding, they were all Elyza’s favourite).

“Ah fuck!”

Alicia groaned into her pillow in annoyance at this rather rude awakening. Her eyes were sore from lack of sleep and she could feel a headache starting to build behind her eyes. Elyza must have heard the brunette groan, because a moment later Alicia heard her raspy voice from the kitchen once more.

“Sorry Little Bean, I was trying to be quiet but apparently I’m incapable of being stealthy this early in the morning. Shocking, I know. Anyways, want some cereal? That’s what I was working on when I dropped that stupid fucking bowl.”

Alicia was still much too tired to engage in any sort of conversation yet, especially when the blonde was clearly already so awake and talkative. So rather than respond she slowly opened her sleep-filled eyes, and was surprised that they weren’t immediately assaulted by the bright light of the sun. In fact, the room looked much the same as it had the night before with just the soft candle light illuminating the space, though the wicks were quite a bit lower than they had been previously.

Alicia rolled onto her back before sitting up and leaning back on her hands beside her waist slightly as she groggily looked out the windows to her left behind the gym area. It was still pitch black out.

“Wow, you know most people use the term ‘bed head’ as an insult, but honestly it’s a great look for you. All that crazy brown hair and those tired green eyes, I gotta say you’re kind of adorable.” The blonde teased from the kitchen.

Alicia glared across the room at the other girl and refused to dignify her bed head comment with a response, instead choosing to focus on a much more pressing issue in her mind.

“Elyza, what time is it?” She asked, voice thick with sleep and annoyance. 

“Six.” The blonde answered with a smile as she began pouring cereal into two bowls Alicia now saw on the counter in front of her.

Alicia’s eyes bulged out of her head at the other girl’s words.

“Six?! Why the hell are you up so early?”

Elyza began making her way over to Alicia with their breakfast as she responded.

“Oh please Alicia don’t be such a teenager. If the dead are up and walking around, you can be too. Now shove over.” Elyza said, kicking the other girl’s legs lightly so she would move them and allow Elyza to sit on the end of the couch.

Pulling her knees to her chest Alicia let out a huff as she reached for the bowl of dry cereal Elyza now held out to her.

“It is a personal belief of mine that people should not be awake before the sun.” She grumbled before taking a bite of her breakfast.

Elyza watched her with an amused expression as she too chewed a spoonful of her breakfast before swallowing and speaking once more.

“Why sleep when you can kill walkers? It’s way more fun.”

Alicia rolled her eyes.

“Easy for you to say, you’re essentially a trained assassin. There’s nothing fun about getting your throat ripped out by a zombie, which is definitely what would happen to me if I went out looking for walkers to kill.” At this Elyza’s smile turned down into a much more stern expression.

“Don’t short change yourself like that, Alicia. You can handle yourself, I’ve seen it. With a little training I’m sure you’d be able to take walkers out no problem. You’d never be quite as good as me of course, but I’d be willing to bet you could be pretty damn close.” She finished with a shrug before returning her attention to the bowl of cereal on her lap and taking another bite.

Alicia was taken back by Elyza’s words. No one had ever seen her the way the blonde seemed to, as more than a child who needed to be protected. Alicia had spent the years since her father’s death trying to prove to everyone around her that she was in fact able to take care of herself, despite their constant doubts and instance that she was nothing more than a girl to be coddled. Her mother and brother had even hidden the true gravity of their situation from her when the apocalypse first began. She knew it was simply a misguided attempt to protect her, but still she couldn’t deny how frustrated their unwillingness to treat her like an adult had made her.

And yet here was Elyza, a girl she hadn’t even known for 24 hours, speaking to her as though she already saw everything within Alicia that the girl had been trying desperately to make those around her see for years.

“Hey Mrs. Deep-in-thought, you okay over there?” Elyza said, nudging Alicia’s leg slightly with her elbow. Alicia hadn’t realized that she had been staring at her bowl blankly for the last few minutes, lost in thought about what the girl beside her had said.

She looked up from her cereal to meet Elyza’s questioning gaze.

“Sorry. It’s just, I’m so used to everyone around me treating me like a kid who needs to be protected and sheltered from everything going on around her. You talking about me like you just did… well, it’s just not something I hear very often. As much as I try to prove that I can take care of myself, you’re the first person to really see me the way I want to be seen.” She looked back to her cereal and took another bite, needing to look away from Elyza’s piercing blue eyes to stop her now pounding heart from bursting out of her chest at the sight.

Elyza’s confused expression turned into one of disgust at the brunette’s words.

“That’s the biggest crock of shit I’ve ever heard. Sorry, nothing against your family or anything, but how could anyone look at you and _not_ see someone mature beyond her years who is more than capable of caring for herself?” Alicia finished chewing quickly before responding.

“Well, I don’t think the fact that I’m still in high school helped matters. Everyone just lumped me in with the ‘needy, irresponsible teenager’ stereotype, no matter how many times I proved I was more than that.” Alicia shrugged her shoulders, looking back up to see a still very confused Elyza looking at her.

“Hold up, high school? How old are you Little Bean?” The blonde asked.

“17.” Alicia replied simply. Elyza’s eyes widened slightly at this, and Alicia was forced to look away from those seas of blue once more for fear of drowning in them.

“Wow. I know I joked about you acting like a teenager earlier, but honestly I would have guessed you were at least 20. That makes you even more impressive. To not even be out of high school yet and still handle yourself the way you do? That’s almost unheard of.” Elyza paused momentarily and Alicia chanced a glance back up at the girl. Those mesmerizing blue eyes were boring into her own with a seriousness Alicia hadn’t seen in them before, willing the brunette to listen to what it was she was saying. Only once Alicia held her gaze again did the blonde continue.

“Don’t let the way your family treats you affect how you see yourself, Alicia. I know I haven’t known you long at all but I can see just how strong you are, and it would kill me to know you stopped seeing yourself the way I see you now because your family was too ignorant to treat you the way you deserve.” Elyza kept her gaze locked onto Alicia’s forest green eyes for a moment longer, wanting to be sure she had gotten her message across before focusing her attention back on the bowl in front of her.

The two girls were silent for a few moments as Elyza finished her breakfast and Alicia tried to process all the girl had just said to, and about, her.

The words Elyza had spoken were nothing like the flirty comments she had been making left and right since the two had met. There was no humor in her words, she had clearly meant everything she’d said, and for once Alicia didn’t blush at the blonde’s words. Instead she found herself feeling… empowered.

She’d always believed she could handle herself, but she hadn’t realized the way her family and friend’s constant misgivings about her ability to do so had been slowly and silently making her doubt herself. She didn’t realize just how much she needed someone to reassure her that she wasn’t simply the little girl her family saw her as until Elyza had spoken. She wanted to thank the blonde, to tell her how much her words had meant to her, but she just couldn’t find the words to express her feelings properly. So instead she decided to move the topic of conversation off of herself completely.

“So… how old are you?” Alicia asked, looking back up to Elyza who had just taken her last bite of cereal.

“21.” Elyza responded after swallowing the last spoonful dryly.

“Really? I thought you were older than that.”

Elyza raised her eyebrows slightly at Alicia’s words, and the brunette quickly realized how the other girl could have interpreted them.

“No, I didn’t mean it like that! I only meant, you know, that you’re obviously self-sufficient and independent and you seem like you’re more mature than most 21 year olds. You don’t look old at all you look really young actually–“

“Relax Little Bean,” Elyza’s amused voice mercifully cut Alicia’s rambling short. “I know what you meant. But as adorable as your rambling was, and as much as I’d love to listen to you go on like that all day, we’d better start getting ready to find your family.”

“Oh, yeah, right.” Alicia said lamely. She was a little ashamed to admit that she had all but forgotten about having to find her family during her previous conversation with Elyza.

“I’ll put our bowls away and get some supplies ready for us while you wash up in the bathroom if you’d like. Your clothes are still hanging on the dining chairs if you want to change, though I personally think you should keep that shirt on as long as possible.” Elyza said with a grin as she took Alicia’s now empty bowl from her and made her way to the kitchen to clean their dishes.

Alicia shot a glare at the back of the blonde’s head before throwing the blanket off her legs and collecting her own clothes to change. She most certainly would _not_ be wearing this shirt to find her family.

As she brushed her teeth with a spare toothbrush Elyza had left out for her and began changing into her clothes in the bathroom, she attempted to sort through the multitude of emotions running through her. She was excited at the prospect of seeing her family once more, nervous knowing there was a good chance they would find them dead, and petrified at the possibility of never finding them at all.

But the feeling that really threw Alicia’s mind into a tailspin was the hint of sadness she felt when realizing that, if they did find her family alive today, she’d never see Elyza again. It was something she had never expected to feel when she first agreed to let the blonde help her find her family but now, though small, the feeling was undeniable.

As annoying as her constant flirting, teasing and cocky demeanor were, Alicia had grown to like the Elyza she saw slip through the girl’s care-free façade every now and then. The Elyza that loved listening to old records, spoke of her parents as though they were idols that she once worshiped, and saw Alicia in a way that made the brunette feel more confident and self-assured than she ever thought she could.

Alicia knew it didn’t make sense to be upset about having to leave a girl she couldn’t have known for much more than 12 hours, but still the sadness continued to claw at her chest as she finished neatly folding Elyza’s clothes she had given her the night before.

She closed her eyes and breathed deeply in an attempt to calm her mind and her fluttering heart before opening the bathroom door and placing the folded clothes on the edge of Elyza’s bed. Exiting the bedroom she found Elyza tying up her black boots by the front door, her katana strapped to her back once more along with a black backpack. She had changed out of the pyjamas she had been wearing this morning into a similar outfit as the one she had been in yesterday, though the white t-shirt she wore today was blood free and had what looked like the label for a bottle of whiskey plastered across the front in black lettering. Alicia also noticed her own bat propped up on the wall beside her bag and shoes just to the left of the blonde.

Trying (and failing miserably) to ignore the way the sunlight streaming through the windows caused Elyza’s blonde hair to practically glow and her piercing blue eyes to shine even brighter than normal, Alicia crossed the room in silence before putting her shoes on as well. Still attempting to keep her swirling emotions at a manageable level, she threw her backpack over her shoulder as she stood to face the other girl. Elyza was grinning from ear to ear, clearly excited about the prospect of getting out of the house and possibly finding some walkers to kill. She opened her mouth as though to say something, but snapped it shut quickly and smacked herself in the forehead with the back of her hand.

“Shit! I can’t believe I almost forgot.” She said. Alicia just raised her eyebrows at the girl, thoroughly confused about what had suddenly come over the blonde. Before she could question Elyza however, the Aussie was making her way swiftly back to her bedroom. Moments later she emerged with Alicia’s phone and headphones in her hand.

“I couldn’t let you go without this, I get the feeling you’re like me in that you need music to keep you sane. Well, sane as you can be in a zombie apocalypse I suppose.”

“Thank you!” Alicia said, taking the phone from Elyza and trying to ignore the sinking in her stomach that came at the girl’s words about letting her go.

She put her phone and headphones in her backpack quickly before throwing the bag back over her shoulder.

“Right, well I think we’ve got everything we need now. So grab your bat and let’s make like a baby and head out!” Elyza said, laughing at her own shitty joke as she opened the door for Alicia.

Alicia simply gave her an exasperated look before stepping out of the apartment ahead of the blonde. Maybe she wasn’t so upset about having to leave her after all (no… she definitely still was, dad jokes aside).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wish I was lying when I tell you guys my dad actually made that baby joke Elyza used at the end of the chapter... He's the reason we don't go to nice places


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another short filler chapter. School is already kicking my ass so I wanted to give you guys a little something to tide you over until I get a chance to continue

As the girls stepped out of the door to the stairwell leading to Elyza’s loft, Alicia was forced to put her hand above her eyes to shield them from the California sun that was beating down heavily on the street before them.

Elyza slipped a pair of aviators out of her back pocket and over her eyes, and Alicia was silently relieved that the girl’s blue eyes were no longer visible to distract her.

“Right, so first things first. We need to find ourselves a kick-ass set of wheels.” Elyza said, scanning the street the two stood on.

Alicia noticed an old beige Honda civic a few yards down the road to her left that looked to be in pretty good condition.

“What about that one?” Alicia asked, pointing to the rather inauspicious car she had just spotted.

Elyza just snorted in response before turning and walking down the street in the complete opposite direction of the car Alicia had gestured to.

“I said we wanted a ‘kick-ass’ set of wheels Alicia, not ones that make us look like an 80 year old couple on our way to church.” Elyza said as she continued making her way down the street.

Alicia jogged lightly up to the other girl’s right side.

“Elyza, it’s a zombie apocalypse, I really don’t think people care what kind of car we drive.” Alicia said exasperatedly. She really didn’t understand this girl’s desire to find a nice car to drive. The longer they were out on the streets, the better chance they would come across something dangerous; be it walkers, people, or some other threat she hadn’t even thought of.

“Wrong Little Bean, I care. Someone as hot and badass as me can’t be seen driving a tired old clunker like that bucket of bolts you pointed out. I have an appearance to uphold and a reputation to maintain.”

“You’re unbelievable.” Alicia grumbled as the two continued down the street.

After another five minutes of searching Elyza finally found a car that apparently met her ‘kick-ass’ standards.

“There you are.” The blonde said as she made her way towards a rather dirty black Jeep Patriot parked across the street a few yards away from them.

Elyza reached the car first, patting the hood affectionately with a satisfied smile on her face before she stepped back a few paces and slid her sunglasses to the top of her head as she studied the vehicle. Alicia just looked at the girl in confusion, having absolutely no idea what the blonde was doing.

“Okay Elyza you found your ‘kick-ass set of wheels’, now can we please get in and start moving. What the hell are you doing?” Alicia asked the blonde who was still staring intently at the car, a very serious expression on her face.

“I’m coming up with a name for him.” Elyza said, still refusing to look away from the Jeep.

Alicia’s eyes widened at the blonde in exasperation before anger took over her features and she crossed her arms over her chest. Was this girl serious? She was wasting their time and forcing them to stand exposed in the middle of the street, all so she could name a fucking _car_?

Before Alicia could voice her anger at the blonde, Elyza’s face pulled up into a wide grin as she spread her arms out towards the Jeep and said, “I’ve got it! I hereby christen you, Obama!”

Alicia just stared at the other girl for a few seconds, eyebrows pulled together in confusion and her previous anger momentarily forgotten.

“Obama?” She asked.

Elyza finally turned her gaze from the Jeep to Alicia, looking at her with a serious expression on her face.

“Yeah, because he’s a black patriot.” Elyza answered simply.

And maybe it was lack of sleep and high stress levels, or the absolutely absurd logic Elyza had used to come up with the name, or perhaps it was the completely straight face she had worn when providing her explanation for naming the Jeep Obama. But whatever it was, Alicia was suddenly doubled over in laughter at Elyza’s words.

She was laughing, _really laughing,_ for the first time in weeks. And it didn’t matter that it was because of one of the worst jokes she’d ever heard, or that she probably looked absolutely insane laughing uncontrollably in the middle of the street. None of that mattered, because it just felt so good to finally laugh freely again, and so Alicia didn’t even try control it. Tears were streaming down her face and her stomach was aching before she was able to pull herself together and stand up straight once more.

When she had fully recovered from her laughing fit, Alicia looked beside her to see Elyza smiling the rare smile that stretched all the way up to her eyes and made the brunette’s heart race and stomach flip in ways she’d rather not care to admit.

“What?” Alicia asked, eying the blonde suspiciously.

Elyza shrugged, still smiling and holding the brunette’s confused gaze.

“You have a beautiful laugh.” She replied easily.  

Alicia blushed heavily under the blonde’s gaze, now looking anywhere but at the gorgeous girl beside her as she tried desperately to return her breathing to normal.

Elyza continued smiling at Alicia for another few moments before mercifully turning her attention back to Obama and walking towards the driver’s side door.

Alicia was surprised when Elyza was able to open the door without incident. Whoever had owned Obama must have had to abandon him quickly for whatever reason, not bothering to lock the Jeep’s doors when they had left.

As Alicia made her way towards Obama, she heard Elyza’s voice from the inside of the truck.

“Damn, no keys. No big deal though, I can hotwire this big guy with my eyes closed. Just sit tight Little Bean I’ll have Obama up and running the country in no time.”

Though she knew the blonde couldn’t see her, Alicia rolled her eyes almost instinctually at her words as she made her way around the front of Obama. Popping open the passenger side door Alicia slid into the leather seat and set her bat and backpack down at her feet.

She watched Elyza struggle under the steering wheel as she tried to get Obama started, the girl swearing under her breath every now and then while she worked. Alicia didn’t want to break the other girl’s concentration, but the blonde fascinated (and annoyed) her to no end and Alicia was desperate to know more about her. The question that had been burning in the back of her mind slipped through her lips before she could think better of it.

“Where did you learn to hotwire a car anyways?”

The steady stream of swear words that had been coming from below the wheel stopped suddenly, and the car was silent for a few moments before Elyza finally responded.

“Uhm… let’s just say I wasn’t the most law abiding citizen in my senior year of high school.” Elyza said, clearly choosing her words carefully.

Alicia smirked at Elyza’s response. She couldn’t really say she was surprised to hear that the wild girl now swearing once again as she resumed her work had flirted with the law once or twice in her youth. Her smirk spread into a wide smile as she pictured a younger Elyza trying to charm her way out of getting arrested by a police officer.

Alicia was pulled out of her thoughts a few moments later when Obama roared to life, much to the excitement of Elyza who was now pulling herself up from beneath the steering wheel and taking her seat behind it.

“Oh baby that’s a beautiful sound! And look at that, almost a full tank. Obama, you just keep on giving.” Elyza said as she patted the dashboard affectionately.

She then reached into her bag she had placed behind her seat earlier and pulled out a map of L.A., spreading it across the console between the two girls.

“Alright Little Bean, lets figure out where we’re headed.” Elyza said as she scanned the map.

“We’re here.” She said, pointing to a spot on the map. “And you found me here.” She slid her finger across the paper before stopping at a point a few centimeters away.

“Do you have any thoughts on where the three people you were with might have gone after you were separated?” Elyza asked, looking up from the map to Alicia.

“Well, the rest of our group was waiting for us on our boat back at the marina we had docked at. If Nick, Travis and Daniel managed to get away from the hoard that was chasing them, they would have gone back there for sure.” Alicia responded.

Elyza nodded to herself, looking back down to the map.

“Right, and you said you were at a grocery store before the walkers showed up?”

“Yeah, and it wasn’t that far from the marina at all, maybe a few streets over.” Alicia said, remembering the short distance she had run in order to catch up to the three men after sneaking off the boat.

“Well there’s a lot of marinas along the coast, but only three that close to a grocery store and near the spot we first met. Here, here, and here.” Elyza said, pointing to three different spots along the coast.

“They’re all fairly close together, so I think our best bet is to take the back roads up to the coast and drive past each of the three possibilities. Hopefully one of them will be the right one.” She looked up to Alicia once more for her reaction to her plan.

Alicia hated the fact that they didn’t have an exact destination, but she couldn’t think of a better way to go about finding her family and so she nodded in agreement.

“Mr. Gibbs, we have our heading!” Elyza said, throwing the map into the backseat rather unceremoniously before putting Obama in drive and steering him down the street.

“Finally!” Alicia finished the quote with a smile. Elyza looked over at her with a shocked expression, to which Alicia simply raised her eyebrows.

“What? You think you’re the only person who can quote Pirates of the Caribbean on demand? Now keep your eyes on the road, Jack, I don’t want to die in a car crash just because you can’t stop staring at me.” Elyza grinned back at the brunette, but complied with her request and faced the road once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys laughed as hard as I did at my Obama joke. If not, give yourself a pat on the back because that means, unlike me, you have a maturity level higher than that of a seven year old


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where's the Clark/Manawa/Salazar/Strand fam at? I dunno (yeah I do)

It took just five minutes of being in a car with Elyza behind the wheel for Alicia to realize that the other girl had absolutely no respect for the rules of the road. Not that it really mattered with no other moving vehicles around them, but Alicia would have preferred it if the blonde at least tried to drive at a manageable speed.

“So are you excited to see your family again?” Elyza asked, breaking the comfortable silence that had fallen over the two.

Alicia had to think about that for a moment. Was she excited to see them? She supposed so, she had missed them and was also anxious to find out if they were all okay. That being said, she was definitely _not_ excited about the shit storm she would most certainly have to face from her mother when she returned.

“Yeah, though I doubt they’ll be very excited to see me.” Alicia responded. Elyza gave her a very confused look and Alicia attempted to elaborate.

“Don’t get me wrong, they’ll be happy to know I’m okay. It’s just… I may or may not have snuck off of the boat to join the supply run directly against my mom’s instructions. Which means if I do get back to them she’s probably going to hug me and then rip my head off.”

Elyza laughed and Alicia’s heart rate picked up at the sound.

“Somehow the fact that you pulled a Shawshank Redemption and broke out of that boat doesn’t really surprise me. But don’t worry Licia, _when_ we find your family I’ll protect you from mamma bear.” The blonde said with a smirk.

Alicia did her best to keep her facial expression neutral while her insides fluttered at the sound of her childhood nickname flowing off of Elyza’s tongue. She also didn’t fail to notice the way the girl had been sure to twist Alicia’s uncertainty about finding her family into a more confident statement in an attempt to reassure the young brunette.

“You’ve never met my mother. I’m not sure even you would be able to stop her when she gets going on one of her ‘angry mom tirades’. I’ve learned its best in most cases to just shut up and ride out the storm. My dad was the only person who could snap her out of it, but after he died a few years ago she turned into full on Medusa.” Alicia replied.

“Medusa huh? Well after dealing with zombies, a crazy lady with snakes for hair should be no problem for me.” Elyza said, glancing over at Alicia with a smile

Alicia was grateful Elyza didn’t offer an apology after she revealed her father had died, she was sick of hearing them. She guessed Elyza knew that though, given the way she had spoken of her parents as though they were gone as well Alicia was sure Elyza had dealt with her fair share of empty and meaningless apologies.

Not that they were all empty, most people truly were sorry to hear her father had passed away, but that did little to stem the grief Alicia felt after losing her father and so their words meant nothing to her.

“Well I’m glad one of us is so confident in your ability to keep her under control. I’ll need all the help I can get.” Alicia said dryly.

“Oh come on, she can’t be that bad.”

“You have no idea. She checked out after my dad died, and it’s like now she feels like she needs to make up for lost time by being extra watchful and overprotective. Sometimes I wish she would just go back to acting the way she had when my dad first died – distant and uncaring. It was easier then, when I could actually take care of myself without having her looking over my shoulder all the time.” Alicia paused to take a breath. She was ranting and she knew it, but she needed to get this off her chest and now seemed to be as good a time as any. Elyza was still essentially a stranger to her, but maybe that’s exactly what she needed; to vent her frustrations to someone who didn’t know her or her mother.

“I raised myself those first few years, a fact she conveniently forgot the moment she decided to finally start acting like a mother. By that time it was too late, I didn’t need her anymore. I still don’t. But she doesn’t get that, she thinks she can pick up where she left off when my dad died but I’m not the same person I was then, especially not with everything going on now. I don’t want to be that same person, I can’t be.” 

When Alicia finished her rather impromptu tirade, silence filled the Jeep as she glared out the passenger side window at the scenery flying by. She could feel Elyza’s eyes on her, but she couldn’t bring herself to meet the blonde’s gaze. She didn’t want to know what she would see if she did. Judgement? Understanding? Concern? She wasn’t sure which would be worse.

After about a minute of silence Elyza spoke again.

“I get what you’re saying Alicia, I really do. But… you only get one mother. And while it sounds like yours has made some serious mistakes, it seems to me a lot of them were out of love for you. She shouldn’t have left you to raise yourself after your father died, a time when you needed her the most, but it sounds like she’s trying to make up for that fact because she realizes her mistakes and loves you enough to try and make amends for them. Sure, the way she’s gone about it isn’t the greatest, but at least she’s trying. Just… remember that no one is promised forever, especially in this world. So don’t waste precious time being mad at your mother when you could be trying to work though things with her.”

Silence fell over them once more, but this time it was thick with something Alicia couldn’t quite put a finger on; something between nostalgia and perhaps regret. At some point during Elyza’s speech Alicia had turned to look at the other girl who she now saw was very focused on the road ahead of her as she clenched her jaw tightly. Alicia was certain the blonde had been thinking about her own mother when she spoke, who Alicia was now almost positive was dead, but the brunette didn’t press the other girl for information. She could tell Elyza had no interest in sharing whatever was going on inside her head right now, and that she had probably already shared more with Alicia than she intended to.

So instead of responding, Alicia turned her attention to the glove compartment in front of her in order to allow the blonde a few moments to herself. However, Alicia couldn’t keep in the gasp of surprise that pushed past her lips when she opened it to find a cord that would connect her phone to the USB port in Obama and allow her to play her own music through the truck’s speakers. She quickly unzipped the backpack at her feet and pulled her phone out, hoping that playing some music would help lighten the still very thick atmosphere of the car and help take Elyza’s mind off whatever seemed to be plaguing it now.

Plugging her phone into the Jeep, she selected Hey Child by Korbee and turned the volume up as loud as she dared. Chancing a glance over at Elyza as the song began, she was relieved to see the blonde was smiling once again.

“You’re literally the first person I’ve ever met who has heard of this song, let alone has it on their phone.” Elyza said, her smile widening as the song's tempo began began to pick up. She rolled down the windows and slipped her sunglasses over her eyes, but Alicia could still tell that the smile she wore now was the one that seemed to soften her entire face. Alicia felt a smile spread across her own in response.

She closed her eyes and rested her head back on her seat. From this position, with the wind whipping her hair around her face and a good song blasting through the speakers, she was almost able to pretend the world around them wasn’t falling apart. And for just a moment, time seemed to stop and allow them to simply be two girls driving along back roads in their ridiculous black Jeep Patriot named Obama. She was free, they were free, and it was incredible.

Alicia sat like that for most of the drive to the first marina they were going to investigate, only sitting up to sing along to the music playing with Elyza every now and then. Alicia was surprised to learn that the girl was actually a very good singer, her raspy voice and heavy accent mixing together in a way that made Alicia want to turn down the music in the car so she could just listen to the other girl sing the song's words. But she knew that she’d never hear the end of it from the blonde if she revealed how much she enjoyed listening to her sing, so Alicia resisted and simply enjoyed what little of Elyza’s voice she could hear over her own music coming out of the speakers.

Alicia found it much harder to enjoy the music and Elyza’s singing after the first marina they visited didn’t end up being the one she and her family had docked at.

After the second marina also didn’t return any positive results, she found it nearly impossible to focus on anything besides the fear and anxiety slowly growing in her chest.

Thankfully the drive had been fairly uneventful thus far. They came across a few walkers shuffling along the road, but Elyza had easily avoided them (though Alicia was fairly certain the girl had wanted nothing more than to run them over full speed with Obama).

Despite the rather quiet streets around them, Alicia’s mind was anything but. With each passing minute she could feel panic rising in her chest and squeezing her lungs until she found it difficult to breathe. The longer they took to find the right marina, the greater the probability her family would have already left, or worse. She tried to distract herself with Elyza’s constant babbling about nothing of great importance, but it was hard to focus on anything the other girl said as images of her dead family continued running across the inside of her eyes.

Alicia managed to bring her dark thoughts back to the girl beside her just as she was finishing explaining why a shotgun was a far superior weapon to any assault rifle out there.

“… plus with a shotgun you get to blow the head clean off! And look at that, we’re almost to the next marina Little Bean.” She said.

Alicia sat up a little straighter to better look out the window and hopefully see a familiar landmark that would tell her they had finally found the right spot. She let out a loud sigh of relief as she squinted down the road ahead of them and recognized it as being the one she had run down the day before to catch up to Nick, Travis and Daniel.

“This is it! I recognize this road.” She said excitedly.

“Wicked. The marina is just up the road to the left so we shou-“

Elyza’s next words were cut off by load groans streaming through the car’s open windows. Alicia’s stomach dropped at the sound, but that was nothing compared to how it sunk at what she saw when she looked away from Elyza and out the front windshield as the other girl slammed on the breaks. About fifty yards ahead of them was the biggest hoard of walkers Alicia had ever seen. The two girls watched in silent horror as the nearly 40 walkers made their way down the hillside to the right of the road and across it towards the marina.

“Shit!” Elyza growled as she took her foot off the break and spun the wheel as hard as she could to the left to turn the car around.

Alicia knew that the smart thing to do was to get the hell out of there as fast as possible, but the logical part of her brain had been overshadowed by the part that needed to make sure her family was safe. Before she could really think about what she was doing Alicia reached across the console and grabbed Elyza’s arm, making it much more difficult for her to turn the truck around.

“Elyza no! We can’t leave them we have to go back! We have to help them!” Alicia could hear the panic in her voice but she was beyond being able to control it or even care about its presence. The fear she had been working so hard to hold at bay earlier was now coursing through her body like a wildfire.

Without taking her eyes off the road or her foot off the gas pedal, Elyza easily slipped her arm out of Alicia’s grip before grabbing the other girl’s wrist.

“Alicia, relax. We aren’t abandoning your family but it makes no sense for us to try and take on that hoard like this. I’m going to drive up the hill across the road, there’s a ridge up there where we can better see what’s going on out of harm’s way.”

When Alicia didn’t respond, Elya looked away from the road for a moment in order to hold the brunette’s panicked gaze. Her grip on Alicia’s wrist softened, but she continued holding onto it as she spoke.

“Alicia. We will not leave them. I promise.”

And as Alicia studied the girl’s blue eyes, she saw no hint of a lie or fear within them. All she saw was determination, any trace of the arrogance and playfulness that usually filled them was long gone. And somehow that made her feel better; she trusted Elyza, trusted that if she said they wouldn’t leave her family, then the blonde would do everything in her power to make sure they wouldn’t. Alicia took a few more seconds to look into the other girl’s eyes, trying to draw strength from the resolve she saw within them, before nodding her head slightly.

Seemingly satisfied that she had gotten through to the panicked brunette, Elzya released her hold on Alicia’s wrist as she turned her gaze back to the road before her and continued speeding towards her destination. Alicia found she no longer had a problem with the blonde’s apparent need for speed, in fact now she was quite grateful for it as the blonde sped around corners and dodged obstacles without ever even touching the break.

Not a minute later Elyza was throwing Obama into park before both girls jumped out of the Jeep and ran to the edge of the ridge Elyza had brought them too. They crouched behind a few rocks and looked out across the road at the scene below them.

Alicia’s heart sank as she looked towards the sea. She and Elyza hadn’t even gotten close enough to the marina to see if her family was still there before they were forced to turn around, and a small part of Alicia had been holding out hope that her family wouldn’t even be at the marina anymore. But any hope she had immediately vanished when her eyes were immediately drawn to the Abigail still tied up to the dock where it had been yesterday.

As Alicia allowed her vision to zoom out from the Abigail she felt another wave of panic crash over her as she realized the hoard was slowly making its way down the dock and towards the ship. The first of the walkers was already halfway down the dock and while Alicia could see movement on the ship’s deck she couldn’t tell who it was. Suddenly a gunshot rang out across the space between the girls and the Abigail and Alicia watched as the walker closest to the ship crumpled to the ground.

Her attention was brought away from the marina by Elyza moving beside her. She looked over to see that the blonde had brought her backpack with her from the Jeep and was now pulling out a pair of binoculars from it. She hastily handed them off to Alicia.

“I don’t know what your family looks like so you look through these and get a closer look at what’s going on down there.”

Alicia nodded quickly before putting the binoculars up to her eyes and squinting through them.

She could see now that it had been Daniel she’d noticed moving on the deck earlier and she watched as he began lining up to take another shot with the handgun he held. She allowed herself a moment of relief at seeing the man – if he had made it back to the Abigail then there was a good chance her brother and Travis had as well.

Not five seconds later Alicia saw her brother run out of the boat’s living quarters towards Daniel who had just shot another walker that had gotten to close to the boat for his liking. Alicia felt fear overtake her relief at seeing her brother and Daniel alive as she realized there was no way Daniel and his handgun would be able to take on the hoard still making its way towards the Abigail.

Alicia watched as the two men appeared to begin arguing, their hand gestures and facial expressions becoming more aggressive and desperate each second. She couldn’t make out what it was they were saying, but suddenly her brother was raising his hands slightly as though to tell Daniel to remain where he was before Nick spun around and sprinted back into the boat.

Alicia brought the binoculars away from her eyes, but didn’t look away from the marina. She watched as Daniel took down two more walkers before five more took their place and her heart sank as she realized the true gravity of the situation.

“They’ll never be able to fight them off. And we’ll never be able to get to them without getting ourselves killed.” It wasn’t a question, but rather a statement of fact. Her voice was small, barely more than a whisper as she reluctantly turned her eyes away from the scene before her to look at Elyza.

The sympathetic expression the other girl wore told Alicia that she was right in what she had said. Elyza didn’t need to voice her agreement, both girls knew the truth about their current predicament. There was nothing they could do now but watch from their perch and hope that her family somehow made it out of the marina alive.

Suddenly, a thought occurred to Alicia that made her eyebrows pull together in confusion. Her family had no idea she was there, they had no reason to linger at the dock any longer, so why was it that Daniel was still firing shot after shot at the hoard of walkers while the boat remained unmoving? She guessed that was what Daniel and Nick had been arguing about a moment ago, but that still didn’t help explain why they still had yet to pull the boat away from the dock and the hoard that walked it.

Putting the binoculars back up to her eyes, Alicia didn’t have to wait more than a minute to get an answer. She watched as her mother, brother, Travis and Ofelia came sprinting onto the deck of the Abigail to join Daniel who now appeared to be out of bullets. Nick, Travis and Ofelia began to hastily untie the boat from the dock, but Alicia couldn’t tear her eyes away from her mother as she jumped onto the dock, the hoard now not more than thirty yards away from her.

“What the hell is she doing?!” Alicia asked aloud, no longer able to keep her panic silent within her.

Alicia looked on in horror as her mother stuck a piece of paper Alicia hadn’t realized she was holding to one of the wooden posts of the dock beside her using a pocket knife. Alicia’s momentary confusion at her mother’s actions was quickly overtaken by understanding – her mother still had hope that Alicia would return to the marina and was leaving a note that would presumably tell her what had happened to her family.

Alicia’s breath caught in her throat at this realization. Her mother had risked her life to get a message to Alicia that she didn’t even know would reach her. She had no idea if Alicia was alive or dead, in fact she had every reason to believe the brunette was long gone, and yet she still put her own safety aside in a last ditch effort to keep her daughter safe.

Alicia looked on numbly as the hoard continued to make its way towards her mother, fighting against the tears that threatened to spill from her eyes. With one final glance around her, Madison jumped back onto the now running boat just as it pulled away from the dock and out towards the sea. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bye forever losers (jk they'll be back....... maybe)
> 
> Also look up that song guys, it's a fucking tune I promise


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Holy shit this is a long chapter... idek how this happened. 
> 
> Anyways it's time for the brief return of BAMF Elyza and BAMF Alicia. I missed these two

For seconds, minutes, maybe even hours, Alicia was unable to move. She remained crouched behind the rock before her, watching as the Abigail became smaller and smaller while it carrier her family further and further away. She was unaware of anything around her aside from the ship that was rapidly shrinking right before her eyes. She didn’t cry, didn’t yell out, she barely even breathed.

The ship had long turned into a nearly indiscernible black dot on the horizon before she was able to tear her eyes away from the endless body of water it had sailed away on and back to the marina. She watched as the remainder of the hoard continued to stumble around on the dock, some falling into the water beneath it and others beginning to make their way mindlessly back to shore now that their potential meal had taken off. It wasn’t until Alicia’s eyes caught the movement of her mother’s note fluttering in the wind that her brain began to function somewhat normally once more, allowing her to slowly return to her senses and begin processing her current and rather fucked up predicament.

Blinking rapidly to try and clear the last of the fog out of her mind, she looked over to see Elyza staring at her with a very worried expression on her face. The blonde opened her mouth as though to say something but Alicia cut her off quickly, not wanting to hear whatever sympathetic words she was sure the Aussie was planning on dolling out.

“My mother left me a note on the dock, we need to go down there and get it.” Alicia said, surprised by just how steady her voice had been when her mind was now anything but. Along with her ability to process what was going on around her, Alicia had also regained her earlier fear tenfold when seeing her mother’s letter had flung her violently back to her senses.

Elyza continued to look at Alicia for a few moments longer and the brunette had to fight not to shift under the girl’s calculating gaze. She seemed to be deciding whether to try and offer Alicia some sort of false sense of hope, or to just leave things alone for now and focus on the task at hand. She opted to take the latter route.

“Alright. We’ll go get your mom’s letter, but first we have to wait up here for that hoard to thin out a little bit. I may be ‘essentially a trained assassin’ as you so eloquently put it earlier, but even I can’t take on that many walkers without turning into one.” Elyza said, finally looking away from Alicia so she could scan the scene below them.

About half of the hoard had begun moving down the street and back towards the grocery store Alicia knew was located to their right a ways down the road. However, the remaining walkers continued to mill around the marina – some still struggling to make their way out of the water after falling in off the dock while others grunted and shuffled aimlessly along the shore.

Alicia clenched her jaw in annoyance but nodded her head in agreement all the same. She hated the idea of simply sitting and waiting for the walkers to leave while her mother’s note sat ready and waiting for her just a short distance away. But, once again, Elyza was right. Even working together they didn’t stand a chance against the remainder of the hoard. She resigned herself to the fact that she was stuck where she was for the time being, but tried to calm her restless mind with the knowledge that her mother’s letter wasn’t going anywhere. She did her best to remain patiently crouched in her hiding spot as more walkers slowly began trickling into the street and away from the marina.

As the girls continued to watch the hoard's painfully slow march away from the marina, Elyza suddenly broke the tense silence between the two.

“There’s something I don’t understand. Your family obviously had to take off on the boat to get away from the hoard, but why wouldn’t they just wait a little ways off shore until the dead cleared out and then come back to the dock to wait for you?”

Alicia looked over to the blonde beside her and saw that she was looking out to the see with her eyebrows knitted together in confusion. The thought had crossed Alicia’s mind as well, but the obvious explanation had popped into her mind only moments later.

“Strand.” Alicia spat out the man’s name as she turned away from Elyza to continue watching the hoard once more. She had never liked the man and the harsh way he approached this new world, and she was certain he was the reason her family hadn’t remained close by the marina to wait for her. Feeling Elyza’s confused gaze fall on her, Alicia attempted to elaborate.

“He owns the Abigail. We didn’t know him before the apocalypse but we saved him from a government stronghold shortly after everything fell. In return he took us with him on his boat, but he has a rather totalitarian view on things.” She paused, remembering his proclamations about the boat being his shortly after they had set sail.

“He was also a big believer in the idea of ‘every man for himself’, refusing to help people who needed it because he saw anyone who wasn’t us a danger and a liability. In fact I’m pretty sure he sees us that way as well. Anyways, I’m sure he refused to stay by the marina in case more people showed up. I’m actually surprised he let them stay docked for this long.”

Alicia continued to glare ahead of her, anger at the man who had surely forced her family away from her slowly burning through the fear that had settled in her chest earlier. If she ever saw him again, he wasn’t going to like what happened to him.

After a brief moment of silence during which Elyza seemed to process the new information Alicia had just provided her, the blonde spoke once more.

“He sounds like an asshole to me. I mean I’m all for self-preservation, especially with how royally fucked up the world is now, but that should never mean abandoning people you can help. Hell, if you thought the way he did I’d be shuffling along with our friends down there as we speak.”

At this Alicia looked back to the blonde and as furious green eyes met soft blue, she found her previously bubbling anger stop in its tracks. There was something about the way that even the slight upturn of Elyza's lips still managed to soften her entire face that caused a feeling of calm to wash over the brunette. For a moment she allowed herself to get lost in those soothing blue eyes that she suddenly noticed were flecked with gold. She didn't question why it was that a girl she had met only one day ago could have this effect on her, she just took it for what it was; a calm and peaceful moment in the middle of a nightmare. 

Somewhere in the back of her mind Alicia realized she had been staring at the girl for longer than was likely socially acceptable, and so she blinked a few times before looking back out towards the sea. 

Alicia thought perhaps she should respond to Elyza's previous statement, but she wasn't sure she could trust her voice not to give away how the blonde's stare had made her feel. So she chose to remain silent as she continued watching the walkers below them. 

It wasn’t until just seven walkers remained on the beach that Alicia allowed herself to look over at Elyza once more. She turned her head just as Elyza turned her own and their eyes met in silent understanding. Without another word both girls got up and returned to their seats in Obama, Alicia unplugging her phone and throwing it back in her bag just as Elyza started the Jeep.

They made it to the marina within minutes, Elyza still driving rather recklessly back down the hill though with a bit less urgency than she had when moving in the other direction. The second the blonde had put the jeep in park a few yards down the road from the marina and the walkers left patrolling it Alicia grabbed the handle of her door to open it. Before she could get the door even halfway open, however, she felt Elyza’s hand gripping her left bicep tightly.

Alicia spun around to glare at the blonde, furious at the girl for stopping her from reaching her mother’s note. But Elyza simply matched the look with a glare of her own, clearly un-phased by Alicia’s anger, before speaking in a calm but commanding voice.

“Alicia stop. Take a breath, you can’t just run into a pack of zombies blinded with rage and desperation like you are now. You need to collect your thoughts and take a minute to look at your surroundings and come up with some kind of plan or you’re going to get yourself killed.” The way Elyza spoke to her, Alicia almost got the feeling that she was being coached by the other girl. Annoying as she found that thought (she knew what she was doing… sort of), she couldn’t ignore the voice in the back of her head that told her Elyza was right and knew what she was talking about.

Alicia was normally very forward thinking and pensive when making decisions – she took the time to see every option before choosing the one that made the most sense and was the most logical. But Elyza was right, she had been so distracted by her need to see what her mother’s note said that she had flung into action without even thinking about the consequences or what exactly it was she would be running into.

So rather than continue glaring at Elyza, she did what the girl had said, closing her eyes and taking a few calming breaths.

When she opened her eyes once more to look out the front windshield she found she was able to take in her surroundings much more clearly now that she had calmed down. Elyza must have sensed that she had regained her composure as well, because a moment after opening her eyes Alicia felt the other girl’s hand leave her arm. But apparently Elyza wasn’t done with her lesion quite yet.

“Good. Now that you’ve calmed down, you can see more clearly what we’re facing. So what do you see?” Alicia looked over at the blonde with an exasperated expression, this was not the time for a lesson in zombie killing 101. Elyza simply raised her eyebrows back at the brunette, challenging her to say something against the blonde taking advantage of this apparent teaching moment. Deciding it would be easier to just play along with the Aussie rather than fight her on this, Alicia sighed and looked back out of the front windshield.

“There’s six walkers left now, four girls and two guys. One must have left when we were driving down here since there were seven when we left the ridge.”

“Right. Now look at where they’re standing and how they move; their size, their speed, how close they are to one another. Think about the best way to go about taking each one out and whether or not you’ll have time to get to each one before the others swarm you.”

Alicia did as Elyza said and studied the remaining six walkers, her earlier panic and anger now completely forgotten as she focused all her attention ahead of her. After a few moments of considering what lay before the two girls in silence, Alicia spoke once more.  

“The two girls on the right side of the street are smaller than the other four walkers and are more separated from them. They aren’t moving too quickly either, I could probably take each out with one swing of my bat if I was able to get enough power behind it. The other four on the left are closer together so I’d have less time to take them all out before they retaliated, plus the two men are pretty big and I’m sure it would take a few hits each to knock them down.”

When she finished her explanation, Alicia looked over to see Elyza smiling widely at her with an almost proud expression on her face. Alicia felt satisfaction bubble in her chest at the look the other girl was giving her, along with the usual flipping of her stomach that came when Elyza wore this particular smile. But she did her best to keep her own face as neutral as possible while the blonde spoke.

“Very good Little Bean. So the smartest thing for us to do is probably for me to take out the four on the left with my katana, while you take out the two chicks on the right side with your bat. Sound good?”

Alicia nodded her head in agreement, once more unsure if she could trust the stability of her voice if she tried to speak.

“Alright! Well let’s go have some fun then, shall we?” Elyza said with a wink before hopping out of Obama and unsheathing her katana from its holder strapped to her back. Alicia shook her head slightly at the other girl before stepping out of the car herself, though she was powerless against the grin that pulled up the corners of her lips at the blonde’s excitement.

Once her feet were planted firmly on the road below her, she looked ahead at her two targets shuffling away from her and took a deep breath. She would be lying if she said she wasn’t a little nervous at the prospect of tackling two walkers on her own, but she also felt more confident than she had when saving both her brother and Elyza the day before. Something about the way Elyza had never once seemed to doubt her ability to handle herself helped Alicia to believe the same, and after one more calming breath she was tightening her grip on the bat in her right hand and marching towards the closest of the two walkers she was tasked with killing.

When Alicia was just a foot behind the undead woman, she planted her feet and swung her bat at the walker’s head without hesitation. Unlike when she had killed the walker stalking Elyza yesterday, Alicia didn’t close her eyes. This time she wanted to see the results of her efforts, and she was not disappointed. Blood and brain matter sprayed from the walker’s head and around her bat, the majority of it landing on Alicia’s face and arms. Alicia was sure she should probably be disgusted by the sight, but honestly she just found it incredibly satisfying.

A grin spread across her face unconsciously as she wrenched her bat from the now motionless woman’s head before facing her next target who had turned at the sound Alicia’s bat had made when it came in contact with the other walker’s skull.

Alicia’s remaining opponent groaned loudly at her as it turned and began shuffling towards her, moving quicker than it had been earlier. Alicia didn’t let the walker’s newfound speed scare her though, instead she planted her feet once more and readied her stance as she waited for the walker to be within striking distance.

When the walker was just a foot away Alicia swung her bat at its head with more power than she had ever generated, a loud grunt escaping her lips just as her bat slammed into the walker’s temple with a sickening crack. The woman crumpled to the ground instantly and Alicia smiled at her handy work, now covered in even more blood and brains than before but feeling more powerful and confident than ever.

Alicia had been completely focused on her task, but now that she had taken care of her assigned walkers she became aware of her surroundings once again. Behind her she could hear Elyza finishing up with her own walkers and she turned to face the blonde, a grin still on her face and adrenaline pumping furiously through her veins.

Three of the Elyza’s four walkers already lay motionless in a bloody pile near her feet, and Alicia continued to watch as the girl toyed with the remaining man.

“Come on mate, at least make it a _little_ challenging. Look, I’ll even keep one hand behind my back to make it fair for you.” Elyza said, a cocky smile on her face as she slipped the hand that wasn’t holding her katana behind her back.

Alicia’s stomach clenched slightly in fear at the other girl’s actions. Her crazy antics and arrogant demeanor were going to get her killed if she wasn’t careful. The brunette’s anxiety only grew as the final walker quickly closed the distance between himself and Elyza while the girl continued to stand stalk still with her hand behind her back and a grin on her face. The only movement she made was to twirl her katana skilfully between her slender fingers.

Just as the walker reached for her face and Alicia was about to scream out at the girl to stop being such a fucking moron, Elyza spun her body around the walker with such speed that Alicia almost missed the gracefully move. In less than a second Elyza was standing behind the walker with her blade to his throat, grinning flirtatiously at Alicia over the man’s shoulder and winking at the brunette. Alicia rolled her eyes at the girl, her previous fear for her safety now long gone and replaced by annoyance at her for making the brunette worry unnecessarily.  

In one fluid motion, Elyza pushed the walker away from her chest just enough so she could swing her katana around and slice his head cleanly in half.

Alicia didn’t bother taking her eyes off of Elyza to follow the man’s descent to the ground, knowing full well he would not be getting back up from the wound Elyza had inflicted. Instead she gave the blonde a look that clearly said _you’re an idiotic and cocky asshole_ , but that only served to make the Aussie’s satisfied smirk grow.

“Told you killing walkers was fun. And don’t look at me like that, you know my badass walker killing skills turn you on.” Alicia clenched her jaw at the other girl’s words and hoped desperately that the blood coating her face would cover the blush she felt rising in her cheeks.

It killed Alicia to admit, even just to herself, that the blonde wasn’t wrong. Even as she continued looking at the blood-soaked and slightly sweaty blonde across from her Alicia could feel desire growing in the pit of her stomach. But now was not the time to be thinking about all the ways that Elyza turned her on, and so she attempted to bring her thoughts as far away from Elyza and what else she could do with her fingers besides twirl a sword by changing the topic of conversation completely.

“We took care of the walkers, now let’s just go get the note my mother left me so we can get the hell out of here.” Alicia said as she began making her way down the road and tried desperately to ignore the feeling of Elyza’s eyes on her.

The blonde didn’t follow immediately though, and Alicia could still feel the girl’s eyes boring into the back of her skull even as she heard her voice from behind her a few moments later.

“I’ll take that as a yes to my skills with a blade turning you on. Good to know, I’ll keep that in mind for future reference.” Elyza said, and Alicia could almost picture the smirk she wore when she had spoken.

Alicia clenched her jaw but chose not to respond, knowing anything she said would just add fuel to Elyza’s fire. Not ten seconds later she heard and then saw the Aussie jog up to her left side before slowing her pace to match Alicia’s.

They made their way to the marina and her mother’s note in silence, Alicia growing more anxious with each step she took. She had no idea what the letter would say and was suddenly terrified by the seemingly endless number of possibilities now running through her mind. What if the note left instructions on where to find them but it was somewhere she couldn’t follow? What if she could somehow follow the instruction but her family never made it? Perhaps the worst scenario was the one in which the note left no instructions at all, and was simply a goodbye penned by her mother whom she would never see again.

Before Alicia could enter full blown panic mode, however, she suddenly became aware that her inner turmoil had carried her all the way to the end of the dock and she was now standing directly in front of her mother’s note.

She swallowed thickly as she looked down at the folded white paper held to the post before her by the blade of a pocket knife. Even through the thin paper she recognized her mother’s loopy scrawl, and she had to take a steadying breath at the sight.

But that breath did nothing to stop her hands from trembling as she reached for the note, ripping the knife out of its place in the post before setting it back down and shakily folding open the paper in her hands to read the print splayed across it.

_Licia,_

_I don’t know where you are, but I know that you are alive and will find this letter safely. I have to believe that. We had to leave the marina the day after you left when a hoard of walkers overtook it. Strand refused to let us wait it out nearby – he didn’t want to linger near the shore that long. He wants to take us to a safe house he says he has in Mexico, but I’ve convinced him to let us return to the marina tomorrow (two days after you and the boys left for the supply run) for a few hours in the hopes that you will return. If you find this letter before then, meet us back here tomorrow between the hours of 10am and 4pm. We will be here._

_I love you Alicia, please stay safe and I will see you in one day’s time._

_Mom_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mexico... fucking morons.
> 
> I'd also like to say that educational Elyza gives me life. That is all


End file.
